Harry and Rose Potter Book Two
by SylviaSnape98
Summary: Now that Rose has claimed her own friends away from her twin, Harry, what mischief can she get into? Or does she get into any mischief at all? The second installment of the Harry and Rose Potter story. Based off of Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets. Book Three finished, and Book Four is started.
1. Chapter 1

Rose awoke from her spot on the couch and stretched, not recognizing that Maple was on her until the cat got down, glaring at her.

"Oh, sorry, girl," Rose whispered, looking at her brother and guardians asleep around the room. Remus was asleep on a recliner with a book in his lap, Harry was asleep on the loveseat, and Harry had passed out on the floor. Shaking her head Rose slowly stood and walked into the kitchen, humming quietly as she went. She let Galen and Hedwig into the room and fed her beautiful cat, who was purring contentedly. Galen nipped at her ear affectionately after landing on her petite shoulder, and Hedwig landed on a perch in the corner.

Rose shook her head and smiled as she got out some owl treats for both her and Hedwig, starting to contemplate what to make for breakfast. She ignored Galen once he sat on the perch next to Hedwig and retrieved the carton of eggs with a slight frown.

Last night had been interesting. As the first night of the summer, she knew her guardians would start it off with a bang. She just wished they had had another method.

"Rose, do you know about… What I mean is…" Sirius had tried to talk and Harry had ran as far away as he could much to Rose's confusion.

Well, now she understood. 'The talk' that everyone had tried to warn her about was terrifying. And she decided that she would have much rathered just reading about it.

Rose hummed as she started the sausage that she found in the fridge along with the eggs, and paused when she heard movement in the living room. Surely no one was up yet? After waiting a moment she decided she had just been hearing things and she continued cooking. Once breakfast was done cooking she simply laid plates out for everyone and went to wake them all.

She paused at the door to the passageway, however, when she saw a woman with light brown eyes and greenish blue eyes sitting on Sirius's lap. She wore long, dark sleeves and dark jeans. They were whispering to each other, neither aware that she was there.

"Hello…?"

They both jumped and yelped, their heads clashing together in their surprise. The yelps easily brought Remus around who then nudged Harry awake.

"Who's this?" Rose questioned again.

Sirius's blush was amazing and Remus snickered before sniffing the air, "Is that food?"

"Remus, don't protect them," Harry groaned as he stood and stretched. "You know Rose'll destroy you."

Remus shrugged helplessly as Sirius who just sighed, "Rose, Harry, this is Victoria." At this, Victoria waved slightly and stood up off of Sirius's lap.

"Hiya!" She said, with what appeared to be an American accent.

Rose frowned and sighed, just walking into the kitchen, muttering to herself about not having enough food. She made coffee for Sirius, who generally speaking wasn't a morning person and tea for Remus. She got the pumpkin juice out for Harry, and the orange juice out for her. She paused, realizing she didn't even know how to place this newcomer at the table.

Harry walked in and seeing that she had already made breakfast plopped down onto his normal chair and got himself a plate with a glass of pumpkin juice, "Thanks, Rose."

"Yeah," she huffed out.

A shamefaced Sirius was the next one to enter, he looked at the setup and tried to sit across from where he knew Rose would be sitting only to be stopped by her.

"Go find a chair," she said with a glare.

"What?" Sirius asked, looking surprised.

"You heard me. You get to sit at the head of the table. And Remus can sit next to Victoria. He'll behave at the table, and based off of the talk you gave me last night I shouldn't trust you and Victoria next to each other."

At the mention of the talk, Sirius scurried off and came back with a chair, which he sat on at the head of the table. Remus and Victoria walked in and looked at the arrangement in amusement.  
"Remus, you're across from me, next to Sirius. Victoria, across from Harry. Also, what do you like to drink?"

Victoria's eyes seemed to light up with relief, "Oh, coffee, please. Do you have any cream?"

As everyone sat and got themselves food that Harry was trying to destroy before they even got a chance, Rose got out the cream and sugar for Victoria and Sirius.  
"Here you go," she muttered placing it down and pouring them both a glass.

"Thank you," they chorused.

Rose finally sat down and ate, silently communicating with her twin, much to her guardians amusement.

 _Who does she think she is? How did they meet?_ Rose asked her twin, glancing at Victoria for a moment before finally eating.  
 _She think's she's Victoria, I don't know, and, by the way, your cooking is getting as good as Mrs. Weasley's._ Harry said with a sly smile.

Rose sighed and glared at him, although her cheeks were tinged pink. _I'm eating as much as I can before I give you the rest of my food, Mister._

Harry just sighed in response and they continued eating. It wasn't long before Rose passed over her sausage-less plate to her twin, however, and she received a grateful hug from him.

Finally, Victoria broke the silence, "You have questions."

"Of course," Rose muttered, staring at the woman that sat at her table.

"My name is Victoria Geren, I'm from America originally, got transferred over here to be an Auror, met your godfather on assignment, and originally fought getting together with him. However, when he found out something about me and didn't run screaming, I decided to give it a go."

"What did he find out?" Rose questioned, taking a sip of her orange juice.

"He found out about my scars, and what my animagus was as a result," As Victoria spoke she was raising her sleeves and Rose noticed short raised up bumps of pink flesh with a frown.

"And how did you get the scars?"

"Rose!" Sirius said in shock and mild anger.

Victoria just raised her hand at him, and stared at Rose for a moment, as if sizing her up, "Myself."

Suddenly the pieces seemed to click in Rose's mind and she sighed. Of course, Sirius was attracted to this woman. With his background and her past pain, it was no wonder that he couldn't resist the woman.

"I'm sorry for your pain," Rose muttered before getting up, kissing Harry on the top of the head and going to her not-quite-finished-bedroom.

"What just happened?" Sirius asked in a daze.

"I think she approves," was Harry's response, as he looked down at his empty plate in disdain.

As the beginning of the summer went on, Rose discovered she sorely missed her twins. Although they often exchanged mail, Rose knew that something was going on, because Galen would return in a tizzy every time. Rose, however, just brushed it off as the twins annoying the rather stiff owl.

One day, while Sirius and Remus were working on Harry's room Victoria, knocked on the door of Rose's room and poked her head inside, "Hey!"

"Hi, Victoria. What's up?"

"Oh, just decided to help you with your room."

They both looked around the very destroyed and empty room and sighed. Victoria shook her head and shrugged her shoulders apologetically, "I'm not much of a girl, so I can't tell you what you want. You tell me what you're thinking and I'll make it happen, though."

Rose smiled at the woman. She had started growing on her lately. "Well, do you know what they wanted to do?"

"I think they wanted to make it as feminine as possible so you wouldn't want boys in it."

They looked at each other and both laughed, shaking their heads.

"Personally, I know exactly what I want. The only issue is the window."

"Oh? What do you want?"

"I want each wall to have the symbol of one of the houses, so I can draw inspiration from all of them."

Victoria hummed and looked thoughtful, "Well… We could do that. But it'd be a culture shock whenever you walked into the room."

"That's the issue," Rose nodded in agreement.

"You're in… Gryffindor, correct?"

"Yeah," Rose answered noncommittally.

"Hatstall?"

"Yeah."

"Ahhh… Well… Why not make it a sort of Gryffindor themed room. Carpet or wooden floors?"

"Wooden floors. Maybe with a rug?"

"Gold to obnoxious?" Victoria wondered.

"Definitely."

They both laughed and Victoria started waving her wand around, the room changing rapidly with her movements.

The floor that used to be carpeted 'for her own protection' turned into a beautiful wood floor, with a red and gold paisley rug in front of where her bed had landed just seconds before. She watched in fascination as what used to be a 'princess' bed turned into a bunk bed, with a small set of stairs going up the side to the top bunk. Her curtains became Gryffindor red with little gold crowns and tiara's on them.

Next, her bookcase flew into the room and landed next to her window. Her desk flew over and landed on the other side of the window, and all of the pictures that Rose had carefully placed on it flew onto the walls. A comfortable looking couch appeared on the opposite side of the room as her bed, and her walk-in closet doors tested their ability to open, moving the couch until the doors seemed happy.

When Victoria had finished she was panting a little bit, trying to catch her breath and wiped the small beads of sweat from her head.

"Woah," Rose said with wide eyes.

"You like it?" Victoria suddenly seemed self-conscious.

"Like it? I love it! Why the bunk bed, though?"

"Oh, that's easy, I know you want friends over this summer, and they'll want somewhere to sleep. I mean, I kept it as two queen beds, but I figured it'd be best."

"You're the best!"

Victoria blushed and murmured in what Rose was sure was disagreement before she walked out of the room rubbing her arms nervously. Rose sighed quietly just looking around until Maple rubbed up against her legs. Rose laughed and scooped the cat up holding her close, feeling the loud purr making her body vibrate.

"I like her too, girl."

The one thing the room needed, Rose soon realized, was her owl perch. She quickly amended the issue and pushed the bookcase over from the window just enough so that Galen wouldn't stare at her reproachfully as he sat on his perch. Then she hummed and went down into the kitchen.

Before Rose realized it was almost her and Harry's birthday and they both frowned in realization that neither had seen their friends yet. As they were about to suggest visiting the Weasley household Rose was cornered by Victoria and informed that they were going shopping.

"What for?" Rose asked in confusion.

"Well, one of the good things about having me around," Victoria said, her voice attempting to sound cocky. "Is that I am a fellow female. And I can tell when you are struggling. So. We're going girl shopping."

Rose squeaked and looked down at herself. She didn't want to admit it, but the training bra _had_ become rather tight.

"Don't worry," Victoria went on to say. "I'll get you ice cream afterwards."

Rose left with Victoria not long afterwards, and they flooed into The Leaky Cauldron.

"Ah, Victoria! Your usual? Where's Mr. Black?" Tom, the barkeep, asked her.

"Not today, Tom, I'm here for girly reasons. Just need to get into Diagon."

Tom nodded his head to where the entrance lay, and as Rose and Victoria walked away, Rose felt Tom's eyes on her.

"Well, where do we go? Remus and Sirius just sorta threw the last ones at me," Rose shyly admitted.

"Easy. Follow me."

They walked to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions and walked behind it to a smaller store. Rose inspected the frilly bras and panties in the window of Sarah's Secret.

"Ummm, Victoria…"

"Don't worry. Sarah's my best friend, she'll steer you right."

As they walked in they saw many people bustling around, and others just staring openly at the displays. There were many things that Rose could hardly look at in the store, but Victoria directed her farther inside.

"Victoria!" A voice squealed out as a witch barreled into her.

"Sarah!" Victoria yelped, her expression on of happiness.

"Oh, it's been too long!" Rose took in the new witch. Her and Victoria were pressed together, but Rose could still see the dark brownish red hair with the blonde roots. She was most definitely wider than Victoria was. Victoria was curvy, sure, but she was still very thin compared to the witch that was holding her and talking animatedly into her ear. Her nails had recently been painted a vibrant blue, but they were already chipping. Once the witch, Sarah, stepped away from Victoria, Rose went wide eyed.

The woman's breasts were gigantic. Much bigger than oranges, and Rose blinked in confusion. How could she still be standing?

"So this is Rose! Oh, don't you worry, Victoria, I'll take the best care of her! Can't let Sirius get mad at you, can I?" Sarah's wink was rather roguish and Rose went bright red, trying to squeak out some sort of word at the woman in front of her, completely ignoring the fact that Victoria had gone red too.

Rose, looked between Sarah and Victoria again, and couldn't help but notice how different they seemed. Sarah's eyes were bright blue, almost the color of the sky while Victoria's were currently a dulled green. Victoria's more angular face just added to how soft Sarah looked. Sarah's nose was small, much like Rose's, but with a small upturn at the end. It was amazing, to Rose, that these witches were best friends.

"This way darling, to the back with you," Sarah said, ushering Rose away from all of the colorful, lacy, and frilly bras.

Once Rose got her bearings she sighed out her relief. These were much more comfortable territory for the small girl.

"I have to measure you dear, is that okay?"

Rose just nodded her consent as a tape measure started wrapping around herself, and Sarah hummed thoughtfully before the tape measure fell lifelessly to the ground.

"Here dear, go try these."

Rose did. She tried every single object that Sarah pushed into her tiny arms, and when Sarah finally let them escape her clutches Rose had more bras and underwear than she thought any decent person needed.

"Just to be safe," Sarah had said. "I loose mine all the time."

"Seems impossible with how big they are," Victoria has spitefully muttered. But Sarah ignored her and sent them on their merry way.

"That was…"

"Terrifying," Victoria said with a sigh. "Yeah, Sarah'll do that do you. You either love her or you hate her. Trust me, I've done both."

With their bags shrunk and hidden in Victoria's robe pocket they sat down at Florean Fortescue's and each got a small chocolate ice cream.

"How did you two meet?" Rose finally asked.

"Huh? Oh, you mean Sarah. Well, it was easy enough. She and I went to the same muggle primary school, then went to Ilvermorny together. We got separated but maintained our friendship. She got into the equivalent of Ravenclaw, and I into the equivalent of Gryffindor."

"She didn't seem…"

"Intelligent? No, she doesn't. But she just… is. For instance, she started that business from scratch with no business advice what-so-ever and now it's booming."

Once their ice cream was finished they went back to The Abode.


	2. Chapter 2

When Rose and Victoria got home lunch was being made by an obviously annoyed Remus.

"What's up, Remus?" Victoria said as she sat on the counter.

"Sirius," he ground out, his eyes tightened into slits.

"Is this about our mission?" Victoria said, worry filling her eyes.

There was a stiff nod from Remus before Victoria sighed and enlarged the bags of things Sarah had forced onto Rose.

"Put those in your room please, Rose. Remus and I need to talk."

Rose slowly grabbed the bags and walked away looking between Remus and Victoria in confusion. Once out of the kitchen she heard muffled talking and knew they had spelled the room so that she couldn't hear their conversation.

Rose walked into her room and set all of her new clothes down. She frowned and went over to a newly hung calendar. She looked and frowned. Perhaps that was the issue, tomorrow was the next full moon.

"July 14th, 1992…" She hummed, circling the date.

Although Rose would never admit it to her guardians, she used to sleep with her twin every full moon, because she felt as if she were going through the apparently painful transformation too. She had even started researching how to become an animagus because she wanted a chance to be there for Remus.

In actuality, Rose remembered distinctly when she had been forced to start sleeping with Harry on full moons. Although Remus and Sirius were always very careful, one day they weren't careful enough, and Rose had tagged along for half a minute. Then she was forced back by Sirius. Ever since that day when Rose was three Sirius and Remus had watched her like a hawk when it was close to the full moon. She had always contemplated somehow becoming a werewolf so she could be with him, but she knew how foolish that would be.

Sighing, Rose shook her head and moved to get up right as Maple jumped onto her lap and plopped down.

"Was that really necessary?" She asked the cat.

Maple stared up at her, not a care in the world.

Sighing, Rose flopped back into the back bump, ignoring Maple's claws as they dug through her jeans.

Rose started getting tired and before long-

"ROSE! DINNER TIME!" Four voices yelled.

Rose screamed and jumped up, Maple nowhere in sight. She shook herself mentally and quickly headed downstairs, rubbing her face.  
"You lot could've told me nicer than that," She grumbled as she sat at her place.

"Yeah, you weren't listening," Harry said.

"Thanks for defending me, Harry."

"Anytime sis."

Rose happily dug into her steak, used to the tradition of steak on days leading up to the Full moon. She hummed happily as she dunked her steak into her mashed potatoes and ate a bite, ignoring the strange look that her twin gave her.

Harry shook his head and muttered, "After years of living with you I still can't handle you eating your steak and potatoes together."

"Well, get used to it," Rose hummed as she repeated the action.

Victoria and Sirius snorted while Remus rolled his eyes. Rose just smiled innocently and drank a small sip of her water.

Dinner was quickly finished and Rose waited for her elders to leave the table before she did. She noticed Sirius was favoring his right side, which meant something had happened to his left. She just sighed and shook her head.

"So, Victoria, do you bake? Sirius and Remus are hopeless at it," Rose said.

"Oh, I guess I bake. I'm more likely to eat the batter than to actually bake it, though."

Rose sighed and shook her head, before pointing to her twin, "You! What type of cake do you want?"

"Chocolate!" Harry immediately exclaimed. "Can I go now?"

Rose ignored him. "And I want vanilla. Sirius!" Rose exclaimed, pointing her finger at him now, ignoring his wince. "Money situation!"

"Anything you want you can have! Just don't hurt me!"

"Great!" Rose clapped her hands. "Four-tiered cake, two chocolate layers, two vanilla layers. We'll figure the rest out after tomorrow."

"Speaking of tomorrow, Victoria will be watching you two tomorrow," Sirius said, looking pointedly at a blushing Rose.

"I will do no such thing. They can watch themselves. I'm participating."

"You can't participate, you'll get-"

"I swear to Merlin if you say I'll get hurt will beat you over the head with a broom."

"I was going to-"  
"Say that they can watch themselves? How astute of you."

Sirius sighed and shook his head helplessly, "Kids, I guess you're on your own."

"We'll be fine Sirius. We always are," Harry said, before pausing and looking at his twin, who was obviously thinking rather hard.

"Perhaps some of the Weasley's could come over?" Rose mused.

"No," both Sirius and Remus immediately said.

"Why not?"

"Rose, we said no," Remus said with a sigh.

Rose sighed and nodded her head, shrugging her shoulders helplessly at her brother.

The next day Rose was very active. Sirius had once joked that the energy Remus lost on the days of the full moon Rose gained, and on days like this Rose almost believed him.

Rose, in all of her activity, cleaned Maple's litter box, fed the owls, cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner, cleaned her already almost spotless room, cleaned the bathroom, and started organizing the bookcases in the living room.

Victoria had watched in amusement, and when asked why she admitted that when she was younger once she got cleaning there was nothing that could stop her. She had almost started helping with the cleaning frenzy, but Sirius distracted her with an intense game of chess instead.

Victoria saw why when Harry picked up a book from one of the piles and Rose looked as if she were going to murder him in his sleep.

Rose, to her credit, stopped for each meal. She acted as if nothing were happening as if she hadn't been going crazy cleaning. And to everyone else's credit, they followed her lead. But when the clock got closer to nightfall, cleaning fell to the wayside. Rose rarely left Remus's side and did everything he wanted before he knew he wanted it. Harry simply hid in his room, knowing that Rose had everything covered.

"Well, it's time for us to go," Sirius said, looking at his watch.

"Yeah, let's get this show on the road!" Victoria said, rubbing her hands together.

Sirius shook his head and tussled Rose's hair when he noted her strained expression, "Don't worry, Cubette, we'll be fine. We always are."

Rose nodded and hugged Remus tightly, and just watched as they left through floo, each one muttering the location so Rose couldn't pick up on it. Rose shook her head and went into her bedroom, knowing it would be another sleepless night.

That same night, in the outskirts of Ottery St. Catchpole, two redhead's were laying on their beds, staring out the window at the full moon outside.

"Think she's okay Gred?" Fred inquired.

"I think she can handle herself," came George's sighed response.

They both sighed and rolled off their beds, pulling up the loose floorboard to look at the items before them. They had worked tirelessly on these inventions. One, that they had tested vigorously, was going to be Rose's for her birthday. They just didn't know how to give her it.

Their mother was going to take the Weasley clan to go shopping for the Potter twins soon, and Fred and George knew what to get Rose beyond their little creation. There was a bracelet, a cheap one at that, that they had had their eye on. It would have to be a collective gift, but they could swing it.

"Do you think mum'll go for it?" Fred said with a sigh, thinking of the bracelet.

"I think she would. I mean, it's not even a Galleon, and you and I both know Rose and Harry 'lose' money here all the time."

They shared a meaningful look and went back to their beds their thoughts with another red head.

Rose awoke from what she could only call a stress-induced nap and zombie-walked her way into the kitchen, only to see her twin asleep on the table. Rose shook her head and set about to cooking, ignoring his occasionally not so gentle snores.

She nervously tapped her hand on her thigh as she cooked, and continuously checked to see if the floo had been activated yet. She had built the fire up to the perfect height for flooing, and her mind was constantly flitting about, worrying that perhaps this would be the time they didn't come back to her.

Her concerns were proven to be unfounded when Remus practically fell through the floo. Sirius came tumbling in next, and Victoria practically bounded into the house.

"Food!" She called as she slipped into her seat, waking Harry from his slumber.

"What's for food, Cubette?" Sirius asked as he helped Remus into his seat. "The old man here would like to suggest potatoes."

Remus glared at Sirius and swatted his arm, "I'm younger than you."

"I could tell last night!" Victoria said cheerfully, ignoring Sirius as he choked on his coffee.

Rose just shook her head and hummed quietly as she turned off the heat under the spitting bacon, and took the hash browns off the heat too.

"You're lucky I can anticipate cravings," She mused as she got Remus his plate first.

Remus nodded his thanks to her as she got everyone else their plates and they all tucked into their food.

"So, how was last night?" Rose questioned finally.  
"Fantastic! I haven't had that much fun in who knows how long! Probably the last time Sarah and I sat in the trunk of a car with my grandma driving and pretended to be casting spells at this invisible thing we were sure was chasing us."

Everyone stared at Victoria until she blushed, "What?"

Sirius shook his head and kissed her cheek, "Nothing dear."

Remus shrugged his shoulders, "Well, It wasn't all that bad. Victoria here probably took the brunt of the force of it, being new and all. I can never really remember."

"Oh, she did. But for everything you did she did back. I wouldn't be surprised if Moony worships the ground she walks on now."

Victoria's blush got worse and she grumbled into her coffee while everyone laughed at her expression.

"Oh, by the way, we need more food soon. Our stores are running low. I can scour about 2 more days out of all of this, but after that, we need more."

Remus nodded his head, "I'll take you shopping this time."

Rose hid her excitement well, but she had always loved shopping with Remus. Although he was intrinsically shy he also was used to making a scene, so they always had so much fun.

Two days later, after Rose's and Remus's shopping trip, they both toppled in through the front door laughing maniacally.  
"Did you- her- oh Merlin!" Rose gasped out, putting the bags on the kitchen table.

"She seemed quite confused," Remus offered as he started putting away the frozen goods they had gotten.

"What happened?" Harry asked as he came into the room.

"Rose found a rather... peculiar purse."

Rose started laughing maniacally, "It was in the shape of a chicken! It had a beak, feathers, and everything! And when I pointed it out, he picked it up and started carrying it like it was his! It was perfect!"

They all laughed and Rose wiped away her tears as she was putting away some eggs which simply made her laugh harder.

"I'll never look at chicken products the same way again," Rose solemnly vowed.

"I would be insulted if you did," Remus assured her.

"You should've kept the purse," Rose said with a giggle.

"Perhaps I should go back and retrieve it?"

"Perhaps you should."

They both laughed and Rose left the room as Sirius and Victoria entered it, hearing them planning Harry's and her's birthday party as usual.

In the fifteen days leading up to her birthday after that (yes Rose had counted) Rose was busy preparing the house with Victoria. None of the males were really concerned with the cleanliness of the house, but Rose and Victoria would have had their heads if they messed up any part of their now cleaned household up.

"So," Victoria said one day as they were working on the study, where they adults often went. "Tell me about the Weasley's."

"There's a whole hoard of them," Rose said with a laugh. "They all have red hair, and they all manage to get tan somehow. I think it's very unfair. There 9 in total, Molly, the mum, Arthur, the dad, and then in order of age is Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny. Ginny is the first girl to be born to the Weasley's in generations, so she's rather special to them."

"Why are there so many? Why couldn't it be a small family?" Victoria groaned.

"Because it's hard to tell people to stop having children. 'Least, that's what Sirius is always saying."  
"That sounds like my idiot, doesn't it?" Victoria said with a self-satisfied smirk.

Rose simply shrugged her shoulders and continued discussing the Weasley family, "Molly is a stay-at-home mum, and Arthur works in The Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office, which is sorta funny because he's obsessed with muggles and how they cope without magic. Bill is a curse breaker for Gringotts, I think he's currently in Egypt, it's hard to keep track of him. Charlie works on a Dragon Preserve in Romania. Percy is a fifth year this year, he was a prefect last year. Fred and George, they're twins, so they always get grouped together even though they're different people, they're prankster's extraordinaire's, and they're beaters on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Ron is… Well, he's Quidditch obsessed, doesn't people well. Ginny is a spitfire, she's also good at Quidditch but her brother's don't like it when she plays."

Victoria's eyes were wide with the swirl of information coming her way, "So, what are all of their Hogwarts years like?"

"Oh, Bill was Head boy and a prefect. Charlie was a prefect, and Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Percy is a Prefect, probably on his way to being head boy. Fred and George are trouble makers, but really intelligent when you get to know them. Ron struggles in school, and Ginny is starting this year."

Victoria shook her head and claimed a headache as she went to go lay down with Sirius.

Rose started cooking her cake the day before her birthday, with Remus occasionally trying to help.

Rose had to shoo him out, though, he double salted one batch, burnt the next, made the next one explode and managed to get a cockroach into her frosting. With him out of the kitchen, Rose managed to finish the cake at 10 o'clock at night. Rose laid down in her bed, with Maple curled up on her chest, never noticing the wide, green eyes that stared into her window.

The next morning, Rose was cooking wildly, having almost forgotten about all of the food they would need for the day. She missed when the Weasley's entered the house, but didn't miss the feeling of the Weasley matriarch hand on her shoulder.

"I've got it from here, dear." Mrs. Weasley said with a kind smile.

Rose almost shouted with joy and hugged the older woman before she ran to go find the Weasley twins.

They found her first.

"Look, Georgie, it's a wild Rose!" George said to Fred, trying to throw off the scent of who they are.

"I know, Freddie, and what a beautiful Rose it is," George said with a wink in Rose's direction.

Rose laughed and blushed lightly before hugging the twins, "How are you two? I've missed your pranks so much!"

"Oh, she's missed our pranks, Georgie!" George said again.

"Guys, you realize that's totally unnecessary. I know that you," she pointed at George. "Are George, and that you," she pointed at Fred. "Are Fred."

"She knows us so well," they sighed together.

Rose shrugged her shoulders and smiled, "Well, that is what I aim to do. You two are so interesting, it's hard not to pay attention to you."

Fred and George shared a look before looping her arms into theirs, "So! We were wondering if you would like to come to The Burrow for a couple of weeks-" Fred started, no one noticing that they now had the attention of all of the adults.

"You'd be sleeping with Ginny, of course, but you're probably used to that by now." George continued.

"And when would I go to The Burrow?" Rose asked.

"Maybe the next full moon?" George offered.

"August 12th, I believe," Fred said with a shrug.

"Well, you'd have to discuss it with your parents, and I'd have to ask Remus and Sirius."

"Do you think you could stay until school started?" They both eagerly asked.

Rose then noticed the adults listening in and bent all of their heads together, "Do you two have an idea of some sort?"

"We need to do research, but we want to recreate the Marauder's map," they whispered feverishly to her.

"And seeing as you live with a bookworm," Fred started, glancing at Remus who was focusing very hard on a wall.

"And you are a bookworm," George offered.

"Who better to help us research than you?" they finished together.

Rose hummed and smiled at her two friends, "Deal. But, first, we're going to start doing something I've always wanted to do."  
"What?" they asked eagerly.

"We'll discuss it at The Burrow."

They split away when Mrs. Weasley bustled over, "Lunch is ready dears! Let's all go outside!"

As all of the children walked outside, Remus frowned at Rose. He understood what she wanted to do, and he was sure that he would be hearing her and the twins call each other different names by the end of her third year.

After a delicious lunch, (that Rose thanked Mrs. Weasley profusely for cooking, knowing that if she hadn't she would've been busy all day) all of the presents for the Potter twins levitated onto the table. Rose ignored what her brother had gotten and just opened hers.

 _Magical Maps and you!_ By Johnathan Merrow was the first gift that Rose had opened. She shared a look with Fred and George and asked Mrs. Weasley to thank Bill for her.

 _Animagus or Not?_ By Katherine Dashful was her gift from Charlie, and Rose was trying hard not to show how nervous she was about retrieving these books at such a strange time. She asked Mrs. Weasley to thank Charlie for her too, much to the Weasley's Matriarch's delight.

 _Hairy Snout, Human Heart_ was the book she received from Percy. Tears glimmered in her eyes as she launched herself at the older boy, his face delightfully pink, "Oh, thank you, Percy! I've been trying to find a copy!"

"Yes, well, without an author to claim it it was rather difficult," Percy said with a sniff as he awkwardly patted the younger girl on the back. "But worth it to make you happy."

Rose kissed Percy on the cheek before going back to opening her presents.

Sirius had gotten her a new trunk for school, "Top of the line," he explained at her confused look. "Here, look, it has 10 compartments, an area for books, and you could easily turn one of the compartments into a little study area like I know you'd want to. I asked specifically."

Rose giggled and she hugged her godfather, happy that he had been so thoughtful, "Thank you, Sirius."

Remus had gotten her the chicken purse. Rose thought she was going to die of laughter, but not before she flung it at his head.

Harry hadn't really tried with his, but he had gotten her at least 5 different types of brushes. At her confused look, he shrugged his shoulders and smirked, "In case you actually try to do something different with your hair."

Rose gasped and held her hair close to her, "Don't worry baby, he won't hurt you." she stroked her hair as she held it close much to the amusement of the others at the table.

Ginny had gotten her a whole bunch of hair accessories and hair care products, hair bands, bandanas, ponytails, bobby pins, mousse, shampoo, conditioner, and the girl seemed to glow under the praise Rose gave her.

Victoria had shrugged when Rose unwrapped _Practical Household Magic_ by Zamira Gulch and blushed lightly, "It seems you've done all the work here this summer. Perhaps you can keep your friends in check at school with all of this, too."

Ron, as always, had simply gotten Rose Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and more than a couple of Chocolate frogs.

Mrs. and Mr. Weasley had gotten her clothes for when she inevitably came to visit them for the summer, claiming that it was much more hot in Otter St. Catchpole.

Finally, the last box sat in front of her, "You two went in on it together, yeah?"

"I didn't want to overshadow poor Fred here, I mean, I'm already better looking than him, I don't need to embarrass him more," George said to explain.

Rose laughed and opened the small box, looking inside and gasping quietly. Inside there was a small charm bracelet that already had the sorting hat, a cat, an owl, a book, the full moon, and a cauldron on it.

"This is beautiful! Where did you find it?" She said, gently taking it from the box.

"For us to know," Fred said, grabbing her hand and holding her wrist steady.

"And you to never find out," George said, clasping the bracelet around her wrist.

She hugged them both happily, "Thank you so much! It didn't cost too much did it?"

"Absolutely not," they said with large smiles.

Rose laughed and turned to see the pile in front of Harry. He had received clothes from Victoria and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Ron had gotten him a Quidditch kit along with Ginny, who was blushing furiously. Fred and George had gotten him Screaming Shoelaces, "Use 'em on Ron." Charlie had gotten him a book about men who were obsessed with Dragons. Bill had gotten him 5 Galleons. Sirius had gotten him a trunk just like he had gotten Rose, and Remus got him a small pile of books, claiming that he really needed to start reading. Percy had helped with that, having gotten him books of the History of the Wizarding world.

Rose shook her head and placed all of her items into her trunk so she could haul them up to her room. Once there she tore open the awaiting packages on her bed.

One, from Hermione, was a book on French, with a letter detailing how excited she was to learn it with Rose.

Another was from Hagrid. The box that she slowly opened held a simple and delicate wooden rose, that it was obvious the giant man had whittled by himself.

The last box, she knew, was from Draco, as she had seen his Eagle owl fly by when they were outside. She hummed thoughtfully, rubbing her finger against the expensive wrapping paper. She slowly opened it and smiled when she saw the Slytherin green everlasting candle. She laughed and put it on her desk before running back to her friends and family.

She knew, also, that later that night there would be more presents from her guardians, and she couldn't wait to get everyone out of the house so that she could indulge herself in selfishness.

The rest of the day with the Weasley's was spent in laughter for the children, and many drinks for the adults. Percy had inquired whether or not her Guardian's had informed her what Hardy had meant, and Rose informed him that they most definitely had, and she didn't need that speech a second time, thank you very much.

Rose had sat on the floor in front of Ginny, who sat on the couch, and let the younger girl mess with her hair to her heart's content. She battled Fred in Wizard's Chess and lost a very close game. Ron and Harry had quickly retreated to Harry's room, but no one commented on the matter.

Percy read passages of _Hairy Snout, Human Heart_ to her on occasion and would discuss what it meant, and if it was correct in their opinions. The twins never outwardly reacted to their older brother's intrusion, but they did vow revenge on the unsuspecting Prefect.

After Mr. and Mrs. Weasley emerged from the study with the other three adults they ushered all of the Weasley's home and promised they would come retrieve the Potter twins mid-day on August 12th.

Once they were gone, the rest of the presents were summoned, and Rose tore into them excitedly, knowing none of the packages would be marked.

In the end, she had received even more clothes, tons of shoes (Victoria had made a small face at the fact that none of them were what she called 'converse'), more hair supplies (more than enough to get her through school), and notes on how to make the process of becoming an animagus more bearable. When she looked up at confusion for the last one Sirius sighed, "You have more patience than Harry ever will, so you're the only candidate to pass these down to."

Rose completely missed Remus's look.

There were also tons of basic school supplies, and many, many more books. She sighed contentedly and hugged the three adults, and went up to her room to sleep and organize all of her new goods into the magical trunk she had received.


	3. Chapter 3

Rose had packed her trunk, prepared a study room in it even, and had devoured _Animagus or Not?_ all before August 12th. She was more than ready when Mrs. Weasley had come to retrieve them, and she had made sure that her guardians had plenty of homemade meals too.

And once she stepped through the floo to the Weasley residence, she was greeted with beautiful pandemonium.

"Burrow, sweet Burrow," She muttered as she dragged her trunk into Ginny's room.

"Rose!" Ginny happily hugged the other female and sighed happily, "I've missed you so much! And soon we'll both be at Hogwarts and it'll be great!"

"You saw me twelve days ago, Gin," Rose said with a laugh.

She heard Molly yelling, probably at the twins, and decided to hang out in Ginny's room long enough for the younger girl to mess with her hair, somehow using all of the hair products she now had to finagle it into a dutch braid that morphed into a low bun. Rose would never understand how Ginny had gotten so amazing with hair when she was the only daughter of a seven child household.

Soon there was a knocking on Ginny's door, and Rose answered it with a large smile, noting that it was the twins. "Yes?" she inquired.

"You didn't say you were here," they pouted. "We have a present for you. Come throw gnomes with us."

"First, speaking of a present, Ginny, promise not to tattle on me?" Rose inquired.

"Yeah, yeah, go do your worst."

Rose dragged her trunk up the stairs to the twins room, much to their confusion, but their eyes grew wide when she pulled two more trunks out of her trunk.

"What?" they inquired.

"Oh, well, I realized I never got you two anything for your birthday. So, here you are! Two trunks, a lot like mine, but not as many compartments, and definitely no rooms you could live it."

The twins hugged her tightly, thanking her profusely before placing two somehow sloppy-but-not kisses on her cheeks. They carried her trunk back to Ginny's room for her, and then went out to go throw gnomes. There was a competition going soon enough.

"I got it passed the stump!"

"So did I!"

"Mine went at least 150 feet."

"Yeah, well mine went twice as far as that!"

After an hour or two of vigorous degnoming, the three of them flopped underneath a tree, panting. Rose was happy she had worn shorts and a tank top to the Weasley household; if she hadn't she might've passed out of heat stroke.

The twins were both sporting slightly more brown skin. She asked them if she had tanned at all and they (happily) informed her that she hadn't, in fact, she was a lovely shade of pink, almost like a pink rose.

She glared at them as they called her Pinky.

"So, what's this gift of yours?" Rose offered, relaxing under the shade of the tree, her head in Fred's lap, and her feet in George's.

"It's an item of our own design," Fred started.

"We're thinking about making it a tablet of some sort and selling it in the shop we're going to own," George offered.

"Well?" Rose prompted.

George dug a vial out from his pocket and handed it to the girl. It was a shimmering baby blue. When she took it from her hand she hummed thoughtfully at it, uncorking the bottle to sniff at it. It somehow managed to smell like sunshine.

"It's a daydream charm," the twins proudly stated.

"How long does it last?" she eagerly wondered.

"Oh, 30 minutes," Fred lazily answered.

"That's amazing."

There was silence as Rose slipped the vial into her pocket, and the Weasley's were called in for dinner.

Silence, however, was not the Weasley way. Dinner was a loud affair, Mr. Weasley talked about work with Percy and Mrs. Weasley, Fred and George talked to each other about pranks, Ginny talked about hair with Rose, and Ron and Harry talked about what mischief they could get into at Hogwarts that year.

Mrs. Weasley started to do dishes with Rose's assistance that night, and Mrs. Weasley sighed tiredly. She had seen the looks that the twins and Rose had exchanged, and she knew that they all fancied each other.

"What's wrong, Mrs. Weasley?" Rose inquired, her love for the much older witch showing on her heart shaped face.

"It's Molly, dear," Mrs. Weasley said on reflex. She knew that Rose and her twin were much too polite to ever refer to her as such, but she had been telling them to for years. "And it's nothing… I'm just thinking… You know, I used to have twin brothers."

This caught Rose's interest, "What were their names?"

"Fabian and Gideon. They died during the war."

Rose recognized the significance in Fred and George's names now but decided to stay quiet as Molly spoke. "When they died, they left behind a beautiful woman, who they had both loved very much. I think her greatest regret was that she hadn't died with them. They were invincible when together, it seemed like nothing could ever get them down."

Molly sighed and shook her head, drying her hands and then patting Rose's shoulder, not noticing Rose's racing heartbeat.

"I hope that someday my boys can find a love like that. Now, off to bed with you," Molly glanced at her watch and then the clock on the wall, where everyone was home besides Charlie, Bill, and Mr. Weasley.

Rose slipped into Ginny's room, her heart beating abnormally fast and hard. Did Mrs. Weasley know about her feelings for Fred and George? And if so, how did she know?

She didn't have long to dwell on the fact, because after her hair was out of its confines and she had changed into her pajamas she was pulled into a conversation by Ginny, who needed to know everything about Rose's first year at Hogwarts.

Life at the Burrow was different from life in the Abode in some ways, but very similar in others. While the Abode was neat and ordered (mainly because of Rose); the Weasleys' house burst with the strange and unexpected. Their mirror was unusually rude (while Rose's was simply very sassy) and the ghoul in the attic howled and dropped pipes whenever he felt things were getting too quiet. There was often a lot of yelling from Mrs. Weasley, as Rose had now been involved in fifteen small explosions in Fred and George's bedroom. The explosions were fine, considered perfectly normal, in fact, it was the fact that she had been involved that was the issue. The main difference in Rose's eyes was that she wasn't taking care of the food.

Mrs. Weasley fussed over the twins mercilessly and tried to force Rose to eat more and more food, although Rose could never get passed her second plateful. Mr. Weasley liked to ask questions about Muggles that only Harry and Rose could answer as they lived in a household that was surrounded by muggles.

They heard from Hogwarts one sunny morning about a week after they had arrived at the Burrow. Mrs. Weasley had passed all of their letters around, "Letters from school," she had said.

"Dumbledore knows you're here, Harry, Rose- doesn't miss a trick, that man. You two've gotten them, too," he added, as Fred and George ambled in, their hair a mess and their pajama shirts twisted around in ways Rose couldn't imagine would be comfortable.

For a few minutes there was silence as they all read their letters. They told him to catch the Hogwarts Express as usual from King's Cross station on September first. There was also a list of the new books they'd be needing for the year.

SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS WILL REQUIRE:

 _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2_ by Miranda Goshawk

 _Break with a Banshee_ by Gilderoy Lockhart

 _Gadding with Ghouls_ by Gilderoy Lockhart

 _Holidays with Hags_ by Gilderoy Lockhart

 _Travel with Trolls_ by Gilderoy Lockhart

 _Voyages with Vampires_ by Gilderoy Lockhart

 _Wanderings with Werewolves_ by Gilderoy Lockhart

 _Year with the Yet_ i by Gilderoy Lockhart

Fred, who had finished his own list, peered over at Rose's.

"You've been told to get all of Lockhart's books, too!" he said. "The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher must be a fan- bet it's a witch."

At this point, Fred caught his mother's eye and quickly busied himself with the marmalade.

"That lot won't come cheap," said George, with a quick look at his parents. "Lockhart's books are really expensive…"

"Well, we'll manage," said Mrs. Weasley but she looked worried. "I expect to be able to pick up a lot of Ginny's things secondhand.

"Right, you are starting Hogwarts this year, aren't you?" Harry asked Ginny.

She nodded, blushing to the roots of her flaming hair, and put her elbow in the butter dish. Luckily only Rose noticed, as Percy had entered with his Prefects badge pinned to his shirt.

"Morning, all," said Percy briskly. "Lovely day."

He sat down in the only remaining chair but leapt up again almost immediately, pulling Errol from underneath him.

"Errol!" said Ron, taking the limp owl from Percy and extracting a letter from under its wing. " _Finally_ \- he's got Hermione's answer. I wrote to her saying we were going to get you from your house, and how your birthday went and all that."

He carried Errol to a perch just inside the back door and tried to stand him on it, but Errol flopped straight off again so Ron lay him on the draining board instead, muttering, "Pathetic." Then he ripped open Hermione's letter and read it out loud:

" _'Dear Ron, and Harry and Rose if you're there,_

" _'I hope you lot are doing well, and that the birthday party was as much of a hit as it sounded like it was._

" _'I'm very busy with schoolwork, of course'_ \- How can she be?" said Ron in horror, although he knew Rose was much the same way. "We're on vacation! - _'and we're going to London next Wednesday to buy my new books. Why don't we meet in Diagon Alley?_

 _"'Let me know what's happening as soon as you can. Love from Hermione.'_ "

"Well, that fits in nicely, we can go and get all your things then, too," said Mrs. Weasley, starting to clear the table. "What're you all up to today?"

Harry, Ron, Rose, Fred and George were planning to go up the hill to a small paddock the Weasleys owned. It was surrounded by trees that blocked it from view of the village below, meaning that they could practice Quidditch there, as long as they didn't fly too high. The boys were upset that they couldn't use real Quidditch balls, which would have been hard to explain if they had escaped and flown away over the village; so instead the boys forced Rose to throw apples for them to catch. The boys took turns riding Harry's Nimbus Two Thousand, which was easily the best broom; Ron's old Shooting Star was often outstripped by passing butterflies.

Five minutes later they were marching up the hill, broomsticks over their shoulders. They had asked Percy if he wanted to join them, but he had said he was busy. Harry and Rose had only seen Percy at mealtimes so far; he stayed shut in his room the rest of the time.

"Wish I knew what he was up to," said Fred, frowning. "He's not himself. His exam results came the day before you did; twelve O.W.L.s and he hardly gloated at all."

"Ordinary Wizarding Levels," George said with a sigh. "Bill got twelve, too. If we're not careful, we'll have another Head Boy in the family. I don't think I could stand the shame."

"Dunno how Mum and Dad are going to afford all our school stuff this year," said George after a while. "Five sets of Lockhart books! And Ginny needs robes and a wand and everything…."

Harry and Rose said nothing. They had been hiding money around the house, of course, but they knew that wouldn't help the Weasley family until they found it.

"I'll talk to your mum, and I'll cover some," Rose said at last.

"You'll do no such thing," Fred immediately replied, sending her a sharp look.

"You two already hide enough money around the house, it's not like there's no way for us to take care of ourselves," George continued.

"Wait, you know?!" Rose and Harry exclaimed at the same time that Ron yelled: "They do what?"

Rose had left the boys early that day, and when she explained to Mrs. Weasley what she and Harry had been doing for years the Weasley Matriarch burst into to tears. She thanked the girl profusely but didn't say that she would let the girl cover some of the expenses, only saying that she would search the house thoroughly before going.

Mrs. Weasley woke them all early the following Wednesday. After a quick half a dozen bacon sandwiches each, they pulled on their coats and Mrs. Weasley took a flowerpot off the kitchen mantelpiece and peered inside.

"We're running low, Arthur," she sighed. "We'll have to buy some more today…. Ah well, guests first! After you, Rose dear!"

Rose took some the floo powder, and stepped into the fire, and threw the powder into the flames.

With a roar, the fire turned emerald green and rose higher than Rose, who stepped right into it, shouted, "Diagon Alley!" and vanished.

Rose stepped into the Alley and waited for the others to appear, and smiled excitedly when she saw Remus there. "Remus!" she called.

Remus engulfed her in a hug as the Weasleys stepped through the floo. Rose quickly noticed something amiss when her head started to ache as if she had been hit, hard and the fact that her twin wasn't there. "Oh, no," she moaned as she closed her eyes and reached out with her mind, trying to find her twin. He wasn't too far, she noticed, and she tried to follow her instincts towards him, not realizing that she had lost the Weasley's along the way.

She came across Hagrid, who was entering Knockturn Alley, and ignored Remus's calls after her. "Hagrid! You have to take me in there! Harry's in there, he messed up in the floo system!"

"You're not going in there, young lady," Remus said, panting as he caught up with the child.

Hagrid had rushed into the alley and come back with a properly abashed Harry.

"Harry, you idiot!" Rose said, punching his arm before hugging him close. "What were you thinking?!"

"I was thinking Diagon Alley, choked on some ash. Didn't speak clearly enough."

Remus hugged both of the children with relief, afraid of what could've happened had they gotten lost. They all walked back to Gringotts, which was where they Weasley's had yelled that they would meet Remus.

"Harry! Rose! Over here!"

Harry and Rose looked up and saw Hermione Granger standing at the top of the white flight of steps to Gringotts. She ran down to meet them, her bushy hair flying behind her.

"What happened to your glasses? Hello, Hagrid- Oh, it's wonderful to see you two again- Are you coming into Gringotts?" she then took notice of Remus and glared at Harry until he introduced her.

"Hermione, this is Remus, our uncle of sorts. Remus, this is Hermione Granger."

"Nice to meet you, Miss Granger," Remus said with a polite incline of his head before fixing Harry's glasses with a wave of his wand.

"Where are the Weasley's?" Rose wondered.

"Righ' down there," Hagrid said, nodding his giant head.

Harry, Hermione, and Rose looked around: sprinting up the crowded street were Ron, Fred, George, Percy, and Mr. Weasley.

"Harry," Mr. Weasley panted. "We hoped you'd only gone one grate too far…" He mopped his glistening bald patch. "Molly's frantic- she's coming now-"

"Where did you come out?" Ron asked.

"Knockturn Alley," said Hagrid and Remus grimly while Rose glared at her twin.

"Excellent!" said Fred and George together.

"We've never been allowed in," said Ron enviously.

"You act like we have," Rose said with an eye roll.

Mrs. Weasley now came galloping into view, her handbag swinging wildly in one hand, Ginny just clinging onto the other.

"Oh, Harry- oh, my dear- you could have been anywhere-"

Gasping for breath she pulled a large clothes brush out of her bag and began sweeping off the soot Hagrid hadn't managed to beat away.

"Well, gotta be off," said Hagrid, who was having his hand wrung by Mrs. Weasley ("Knockturn Alley! If you hadn't found him, Hagrid!" a comment that Rose resented, as she was the one who found who he was). "See yer at Hogwarts!" And he strode away, head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the packed street.

Harry went to talk to Hermione and Ron with Remus and Mr. Weasley trailing close behind. Rose was back with the twins, her heart still racing.

"What did it feel like?" they questioned.

"Terrifying. He hit his head I think," she said with a sigh, rubbing her own.

"Being separated hurts."

"You're telling me," she mumbled, letting them wrap their arms around her shoulders.

Rose stayed above ground with the twins, talking quietly about what they were going to buy.

When everyone returned, Remus handed Rose a bag of coins, knowing that hers would be depleted from her stay at the Weasley's.

Back outside on the marble steps, they all separated. Percy muttered vaguely about needing a new quill. Fred, George, and Ron had spotted Lee Jordan. Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were going to Madam Malkins. Mr. Weasley was insisting on taking the Grangers off to the Leaky Cauldron for a drink. Remus, was muttering something about needing a drink too.

"We'll all meet at Flourish and Blotts in an hour to buy your schoolbooks," said Mrs. Weasley, setting off with Ginny. "And not one step down Knockturn Alley!" She shouted at the twin's and Rose's retreating backs.

"As if I'd let you lot go down there," Rose said, rolling her eyes.

"Yes, I think our dearest flower had had enough excitement for one day," Fred said with an eyeroll.

They all happily went to Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop, where they met Hermione, Ron and Harry. Rose was helping the twins and Lee stock up on Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks, and many other pranking materials that they didn't let the Golden Trio see. Rose was giggling maniacally as she kept paying for more and more things and the twins were getting more and more frustrated with her, much to Lee's amusement. They stopped at Florean Fortescue's, Rose's treat, and all enjoyed some ice cream before separating from Lee and going to Flourish and Blotts.

They were by no means the only ones making their way to the bookshop. As they approached it, they saw to their surprise a large crowd jostling outside the doors, trying to get in. The reason for this was proclaimed by a large banner stretched across the upper windows:

 **GILDEROY LOCKHART**

 **will be signing copies of his autobiography**

 _ **MAGICAL ME**_

 **today 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m..**

"This," Rose sighed, "Is bollocks."

The crowd seemed to be made up mostly of witches around Mrs. Weasley's age. A harassed-looking wizard stood at the door, saying, "Calmly, please, ladies…. Don't push, there… mind the books, now…"

The pranksters managed to squeeze inside. A long line wound right to the back of the shop, where Gilderoy Lockhart was signing his books. Rose grabbed a copy of _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2_ as the twins grabbed The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4 and they sneaked up the line to where the rest of the Weasleys were standing with the Grangers, Remus, and Harry.

"Oh, there you are, good," said Mrs. Weasley. She sounded breathless and kept patting her hair. "We'll be able to see him in a minute…"

Gilderoy Lockhart came slowly into view, seated at a table surrounded by large pictures of his own face, all winking and flashing dazzlingly white teeth at the crowd. The real Lockhart was wearing robes of forget-me-not blue that exactly matched his eyes; his pointed wizard's hat was set at a jaunty angle on his wavy hair.

A short, irritable-looking man was dancing around taking photographs with a large black camera that emitted puffs of purple smoke with every blinding flash.

"Out of the way, there," he snarled at Ron, moving back to get a better shot. "This is for the _Daily Prophet_ -"

"Yes, and your attitude is for the dogs," growled Rose.

"Big deal," said Ron, rubbing his foot where the photographer had stepped on it.

Gilderoy Lockhart had heard them. He looked up. He saw Ron- and then he saw the famous Potter twins. He stared. Then he leapt to his feet and positively shouted, "It _can't_ be the Potter twins!"

The crowd parted, whispering excitedly; Lockhart dived forward, seized Harry and Rose's arms, and pulled them to the front. The crowd burst into applause. Harry and Rose felt their faces burn as Lockhart shook their hands for the photographer, who was clicking away madly, wafting thick smoke over the Weasley's.

"Nice big smiles, you two," said Lockhart, through his own gleaming teeth. "Together we're worth the front page."

When he finally let go of their hands they tried to sidle back over to the Weasleys, but Lockhart threw an arm around his shoulders and clasped them tightly onto his sides.

Rose could feel panic building up in her. She didn't like the feel of the man's arm around her, she wanted to get away! Lockhart was speaking, but Rose didn't hear a word of it. She did, feel Lockhart shake them though and her panic welled even higher inside of her. She sent a pleading look to Remus but knew he couldn't do a thing. Soon she found her arms being filled with books and noticed Harry's arms were full of the same things. She staggered under the weight but followed her brother away from the attention and the terrifying man.

"Remus…" She muttered, dropping to books into Ginny's cauldron and Harry presented his to Mrs. Weasley. Remus held open his arms and engulfed the girl in a comforting hug. He shushed her quietly and comforted her until her heart beat calmed.

She then heard a familiar voice, "Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter?" Rose swiftly turned around to see Draco Malfoy.

" _Famous_ Harry Potter," said Draco. "Can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page. And dragging your sister into it on top of that!"

"Leave him alone, he didn't want all that!" said Ginny, who was glaring harshly at him.

"Draco, please…" Rose mumbled, noting that he was about to start in again. Draco immediately deflated.

"You look pale, Rose," he said after a moment, much to everyone's shock.

"I don't feel that well anymore," she admitted.

Draco was about to say something more when Mr. Malfoy put his hand on his shoulder. Draco's sneer was immediately back in place, almost fast enough to give everyone whiplash. Rose ignored the conversation that was happening, ignored the fight that started and simply looked sadly at Draco. As soon as his father was away he was right by Rose's side, whispering feverishly to her, "Listen, you need to watch yourself around my father, he's a supporter of You-Know-Who. Please, Rose, be careful. Don't let yourself be caught up in the Weasley vs. Malfoy mess."

Rose nodded her consent and before she could speak Draco was following his father out the door and she was being led out by Remus.

"You're friends with a Malfoy," Remus deadpanned.

"You're friends with a grim," she muttered in retaliation.

Remus hugged the Potter twins goodbye and thanked Mr. and Mrs. Weasley for keeping the twins, with only Rose and the Weasley twins noticing as he slipped a pouch of coins into her purse.

Rose watched Harry take off his glasses then took his armed and went spinning through the floo system with him, no longer trusting him on his own.


	4. Chapter 4

The end of the summer vacation came too quickly for Harry and Rose's likings. While they were looking forward to returning to Hogwarts (not the homework) their time spent with family and friends had been some of the happiest days of their lives. To top it all off, Rose was jealous of Ron, and his ability to live with the Weasley Twins full time.

On their last evening, Mrs. Weasley conjured up a sumptuous dinner that included all of Harry and Rose's favorite things, ending with a mouthwatering treacle pudding. Fred, George and Rose rounded off the evening with a display of Filibuster fireworks; they filled the kitchen with red and blue stars that bounced from ceiling to wall for at least half an hour. Then it was time for a last mug of hot chocolate and bed.

It took a long while to get started next morning. They were up at dawn, but somehow they still seemed to have a great deal to do. Mrs. Weasley dashed about in a bad mood looking for spare socks and quills; people kept colliding on the stairs, half-dressed with bits of toast in their hands; and Mr. Weasley nearly broke his neck, tripping over a stray chicken as he crossed the yard carrying Ginny's trunk to the car.

Rose and Harry exchanged worried glances, both wondering how eight people, six large trunks, three owls, a cat, and a rat were going to fit into one small Ford Anglia. They had reckoned that without the special features that Mr. Weasley had added it wouldn't have been possible.

"Not a word to Molly," he whispered to Harry as he opened the trunk and showed him how it had been magically expanded so that the luggage fitted easily.

When at last they were all in the car, Mrs. Weasley glanced into the back seat, where Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Percy, and Rose were all sitting comfortably side by side, and said, "Muggles _do_ know more than we give them credit for, don't they?" She and Ginny got into the front seat, which had been stretched so that it resembled a park bench. "I mean, you'd never know it was this roomy from the outside, would you?"

Mr. Weasley started up the engine and they trundled out of the yard, Rose and Harry looked back for a last look at the house. However, they got another glance, because after they had almost reached the highway when Ginny shrieked that she'd left her diary. By the time she had clambered back into the car, they were running late, and tempers were running high.

Mr. Weasley glanced at his watch and then at his wife.

"Molly, dear-"

" _No_ , Arthur-"

"No one would see- this little button here is an Invisibility Booster I installed- that'd get us up in the air- then we fly above the clouds. We'd be there in ten minutes and no one would be any the wiser-"

"I said _no_ , Arthur, not in broad daylight-"

They reached Kings Cross as a quarter to eleven. Mr. Weasley dashed across the road to get trolleys for their trunks and they all hurried into the station.

The tricky part of getting onto the train was getting onto the platform. Yo had to walk through the solid barrier dividing platforms nine and ten. It didn't hurt at all, but it had to be done carefully so that none of the Muggles noticed you vanishing.

"Percy and Rose first," said Mrs. Weasley, looking nervously at the clock overhead, which showed they had only five minutes to disappear casually through the barrier.

Percy and Rose strode briskly forward and vanished. Mr. Weasley helped everyone onto the train and Rose looked around the train for Lee Jordan, not noticing her missing twin.

"Rose!" Lee said with a grin as he hugged the witch before putting her trunk up. "And I see you brought Maple too."

"Of course. My godfather isn't fond of cats," Rose said with a shrug.

"Ain't that the truth," the twins muttered before putting their own trunks up.

"Don't forget that I brought Galen too, he'd be really insulted if you forgot about him," Rose said, motioning to her snooty owl.

"Oh, I couldn't forget the handsome Galen, now could I?" Lee cooed to the bird, making the owl puff up with pride.

Suddenly, as the train lurched away, Rose felt as if something were wrong. Terribly, and dreadfully wrong. She frowned and closed her eyes, drowning out the conversation the twins and Lee were having about the rest of their summers and focused solely on her bond with her twin.

There was silence. The sort of silence a muggle would get on their phone when they had no signal. Rose started to panic she stood suddenly, gaining the attention of the boys. She murmured a quick apology and started searching the train. Soon she found Hermione Granger sitting with Neville Longbottom, talking animatedly.

"Where are they?" Rose said, opening the door to the compartment.

"Harry and Ron? I thought they were with you?" Hermione queried.

"Oh no!" groaned Rose as she sat in the compartment, not caring that she wasn't invited. "They must've missed the train! How will they get to Hogwarts now?!"

Hermione attempted to comfort Rose, but she was also worrying now. Rose shook her head and got up, going to ride the rest of the train with the twins.

Rose was exhausted emotionally and mentally once she reached the twins and Lee. She nestled herself in between the twins and promptly fell asleep, leaning against George.

"Is she okay?" Lee questioned.

"Dunno, mate. Maybe something happened with Ron and Harry. We cut it really close today."

"Maybe…" George said, looking out the window.

Soon enough, they were interrupted. Draco Malfoy swaggered into their compartment and shut the door behind him.

"Malfoy," the twins growled.

"Hush," Malfoy reprimanded, shutting the blinds. "Is Rose okay?"

This took them all aback. Rose grunted in her sleep and curled closer to George.

"Yeah, as okay as she can be. Why? Has something happened?" Fred wondered.

"It's… Hogwarts won't be safe this year. At least, that's what my father said," Draco ignored their looks at the mention of his father. "Just wanted to make sure nothing happened to her."

And with that, he was gone.

The twins looked in confusion at each other and then to Lee. They sighed and shrugged their shoulders, wrapping their arms around Rose.

"Still got the hots for her, I see."

"You have no idea," the twins sighed, moving Rose's impossibly long hair out of her face.

Rose, on the other hand, was having dreams about the Ford Anglia, and what was happening inside of it.

The Weasley twins gently roused her, though, and she completely forgot of the dreams.

"Get your robes on, we'll wait outside," they muttered as they ushered Lee out, all three already in robes.

Rose quickly got dressed and knocked on the door when she was done to let them know. She grabbed a mirror from her trunk and groaned when she saw how much of a mess it was.

"I'll brush it," Lee offered, patting the spot next to his.

"You will?" Rose said with relief.

"Yeah, I have a little sister, do her hair all the time. How do you think I'm such a ladies man?" he said with a wink as she handed him a brush and said next to him with her back to him. He brushed through her hair gently and thoroughly and Rose quickly threw it into a high ponytail so that she didn't have to move it to sit down.

"Thank you, Lee!" Rose said happily as the train started slowing down and she stowed the brush away.

"No problem!"

Fred and George made a mental note to learn how to brush hair from their friend. Rose had seemed very relaxed the whole time, and when their mother brushed Ginny's hair Ginny was anything but.

They walked forward to the horseless carriages, and rode up to the castle together, talking about how they should've grabbed some of the fireworks to set off at the feast. They walked in under the stern direction of Professor McGonagall, who gave a particularly stern look to Rose which confused her. Had she done something wrong?

Rose shook it off and sat down at the Gryffindor table to listen to the sorting hat's song.

It was only when everyone was clapping around her that she realized she hadn't listened to a word of it.

Rose also didn't pay attention to the sorting, only that Ginny had gone bright red when called, "Weasley, Ginevra" and that she had been sorted into Gryffindor.

Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore had disappeared for a time, and when they came back neither looked all that happy.

The feast went by in a blink of an eye, she tried to reach out to her twin numerous times, but now seemed to be blocked. There were whispers going around her that they had flown an enchanted car to school and Rose thought she was going to die.

And then the fire started in her brain. Her brother and his best friend were going to regret their decision to drive, no, _fly_ that car to school. Hermione tried to say that they wouldn't, but Rose knew better.

"Fred, George, Lee, I'll be in my room. I hope you all sleep well," Rose ground out, walking up to her room, not waiting for a response.

She heard everyone when her twin and his best friend got into the common room, and she clung to her pillow, even Maple's reassuring purr now calming her. She knew that flying that car had been stupid, perhaps the boys had been seeking attention. Whatever the reason, though, she knew she didn't condone it.

The next day Rose sat with the twins, quiet and subdued. She ignored her twins existence, and only occasionally commented to the twins about Gryffindor's chances this year.

Rose had just started eating some porridge (it was better than any she could fathom creating at home) when there was a rushing sound overhead and a hundred or so owls streamed in, circling the hall and dropping letters and packages into the chattering crowd. A big, lumpy package bounced off of Neville's head and, a second later, something large and gray fell into Hermione's jug, spraying everyone near her with milk and feathers.

Rose watching in interest and Ron pulled Errol out by the feel, with a damp red envelope in his beak.

"Hermione, cover your ears!" Rose yelled down the table as the twins and her covered their own.

Soon, after Ron contemplated running, he opened the howler. A roar of sound filled the huge hall, shaking dust from the ceiling.

" _ **\- STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IN THEY'D EXPELLED YOU, YOU WAIT TIL I GET A HOLD OF YOU BOTH, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE-"**_

Mrs. Weasley's yells, a hundred times louder than usual, made the plates and spoons rattle on the table and echoed deafeningly off the stone walls. People throughout the hall were swiveling around to see who had received the Howler, and Ron sank so low in his chair that only his crimson forehead could be seen.

" _ **\- LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME AND THAT SIRIUS AND REMUS WOULD TAKE YOU BOTH FROM SCHOOL ON THEIR OWN, WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS, YOU BOTH COULD HAVE DIED-"**_

Rose was amazed at how well Harry seemed to be ignoring the howler, but as he wasn't covering his ears she knew that this was hitting him hard.

" _ **\- ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED- YOUR FATHER'S FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME."**_

A ringing silence fell. The red envelope, which had dropped from Ron's hand, burst into flames and curled into ashes. Harry and Ron sat stunned, as though a tidal wave had just passed over them. A few people laughed and, gradually, a babble of talk broke out again.

She watched as Harry opened a letter that Hedwig had dropped off to him, knowing that it contained some form of beratement from their godfather, as Remus wouldn't even acknowledge that this had happened until the freshness left his mind.

She opened her own letter, and sighed quietly, smiling at the words it held.

 _Rose,_

 _I had already missed you more than I cared to admit while you were at the Weasley's, but now that you and Harry are at Hogwarts I can't help but think that I'm glad you're out of the house. Sirius is going berserk, and nothing that Victoria nor I can do will calm him. Your brother is in a heap of trouble, and I know that you'll watch over him._

 _-Uncle Remus_

Rose smiled again and shook her head, knowing that she didn't have a choice in the matter about looking after her twin. She knew that this was a warning from Remus; don't let your brother get into any more trouble _or else_.

Professor McGonagall was moving along the Gryffindor table, handing out course schedules. Rose took hers and saw that she had double Herbology with the Hufflepuffs first.

After much deliberation on her part, Rose left the castle with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They crossed over the vegetable patch and made for the greenhouses, where the magical plants were kept.

As they neared the greenhouses they saw the rest of the class standing outside, waiting for Professor Sprout. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had only just joined them when she came striding into view across the lawn, accompanied by Gilderoy Lockhart. Professor Sprout's arms were full of bandages, and Rose spotted the Whomping Willow in the distance, several of its branches now in slings. Rose quickly hid behind Lavender Brown as Lockhart got closer.

"Oh, hello there!" he called, beaming around at the assembled students. "Just been showing Professor Sprout the right way to doctor a Whomping Willow! But I don't want you running away with the idea that I'm better at Herbology than she is! I just happen to have met several of these exotic plants on my travels…"

"Greenhouse three today, chaps!" Said Professor Sprout, who was looking distinctly disgruntled, not at all her usual cheerful self.

There was a murmur of interest. They had only ever worked in greenhouse one before- greenhouse three housed far more interesting and dangerous plants. Professor Sprout took a large key from her belt and unlocked the door. Rose caught a whiff of damp earth and fertilizer mingling with the heavy perfume of some giant, umbrella-sized flowers dangling from the ceiling. Rose quickly walked into the room, not allowing Lockhart's wandering eyes to find her. She watched as Hermione and Ron went into the room, but Harry didn't follow.

She also watched as Lockhart shut the door in Professor Sprouts face.

When Harry finally entered the room, Professor Sprout was standing behind a trestle bench in the center of the greenhouse. About twenty pairs of different-colored earmuffs were lying on the bench. When Harry had taken his place between Ron and Hermione, she said, "We'll be repotting Mandrakes today. Now, who can tell me the properties of the Mandrake?"

To nobody's surprise, Hermione's hand was the first into the air.

"Mandrake, or Mandragora, is a powerful restorative," said Hermione, sounding as usual as though she had swallowed the textbook. "It is used to return people who have been transfigured or cursed into their original state,"

"Excellent. Ten points to Gryffindor," said Professor Sprout. "The Mandrake forms and essential part of most antidotes. It is also, however, dangerous. Who can tell me why?"

Hermione's hand, much to Rose's amusement, narrowly missed Harry's glasses as it shot up again.

"The cry of the Mandrake is fatal to anyone who hears it," she said promptly.

"Precisely. Take another ten points," said Professor Sprout. "Now, the Mandrakes we have here are still very young."

She pointed to a row of deep trays as she spoke, and everyone shuffled forward for a better look. A hundred or so tufty little plants, purplish green in color, were growing there in rows. They looked quite unremarkable to Rose, although she knew what their cry could do to someone.

"Everyone take a pair of earmuffs," said Professor Sprout.

There was a scramble as everyone tried to seize a pair that wasn't pink and fluffy.

"When I tell you to put them on, make sure your ears are _completely_ covered," said Professor Sprout. "When it is safe to remove them, I will give you the thumbs-up. Right- earmuffs _on_."

Rose snapped the earmuffs over her ears and made sure Neville's were on properly. Professor Sprout put the pink, fluffy pair over her own ears, rolled up the sleeves of her robes, grasped one of the tufty plants firmly, and pulled hard.

Instead of roots, a small, muddy, and extremely ugly baby popped out of the earth. They leaves were growing right out of his head. He had pale green, mottled skin, and was clearly bawling at the top of his lungs.

Professor Sprout took a large plant pot from under the table and plunged the Mandrake into it, burying him in dark, damp compost until only the tufted leaves were visible. Professor Sprout dusted off her hands, gave them all the thumbs-up, and removed her own earmuffs.

"As our Mandrakes are only seedlings, their cries won't kill yet," she said calmly as though she'd just done nothing more exciting than water a begonia. "However, they _will_ knock you out for several hours, and as I'm sure none of you want to miss your first day back, make sure your earmuffs are securely in place while you work. I will attract your attention when it is time to pack up.

"Four to a tray- there is a large supply of pots here- compost in the sack over there- and be careful of the Venomous Tentacula, it's teething."

She gave a sharp slap to a spiky, dark red plant as she spoke, making it draw in the long feelers that had been inching sneakily over her shoulder.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were joined at their tray by a curly-haired Hufflepuff boy that Rose only knew by sight, as she joined Susan Bones, Neville Longbottom, and Pavarti Patil.

As soon as their earmuffs were on, Neville appeared to be in his element, and after he potted his he helped Rose with hers, as she was still struggling to pull hers from the earth that it was stubbornly staying in.

By the end of the class, Rose, like everyone else, was sweaty, aching, and covered in earth. Everyone traipsed back to the castle for a quick wash and they the Gryffindors hurried off to Transfiguration.


	5. Chapter 5

Rose thought that Professor McGonagall's classes were always difficult, but today was even more so. Everything Rose had learned seemed harder to do all of a sudden. She was turning beetles into buttons (why would she ever need this information?) and although she could, she waited (as always) for Hermione to do it first. Mainly she kept herself entertained thinking about what would happen if someone were to become a beetle in their animagus form.

She watched as Harry struggled, and sighed. He hadn't gotten their father's talent for Transfiguration. Ron, however, was having an even harder time than Harry. He had patched up his wand with some borrowed Spellotape, but it seemed to be damaged beyond repair. It kept crackling and sparking at odd moments, and every time Ron tried to transfigure his beetle it engulfed him in thick gray smoke that smelled of rotten eggs. Unable to see what he was doing, Ron accidentally squashed his beetle with his elbow and had to ask for a new one. Professor McGonagall wasn't pleased.

Rose was relieved to hear the lunch bell. Her stomach was rolling from the smells that Ron's wand gave off, and her brain felt like a wet sponge. Everyone filed out of the class, but Harry and Ron were left behind.

Rose happily sat with the twins and started talking about what they needed to do to become animagi.

"Guys, have you even started meditating yet?" Rose sighed, as they devoured their food, although with more manners than Ronald would have.

"It's almost impossible to sit still for that long!" Fred groaned.

"Yeah, and just sitting there doing nothing is boring!" George continued.

" _And_ Lee is distracting," they muttered together.

"Maybe if we _told_ him-"

"No," they both said.

"Not happening," George said.

"Yeah, this is _our_ thing," Fred agreed.

"Fine. But really, we need to meditate, introspection is key. You need to know yourself really well to be able to do this, guys, and I'm being completely serious. This is just the first part. After this we have to actually contact our inner animal, and touch our magical core, not to _mention_ the mandrake leaf."

"Okay, okay, we get it," they said, holding their hands up in surrender.

"Good. Do you guys have a free period?"

"Yeah, why?" Fred answered as George was chewing.

"We're going to meditate for a bit."

They groaned, but nodded their consent, all of them standing and going into the boy's room, telling Lee they needed peace and quiet. They all piled onto Fred's bed and looked at each other.

"So, how do we do this, Rose?"

"Yeah, we don't even know how to start."

"Never got this far, I'd assume?" Rose said, closing her eyes and getting comfortable.

Rose knew the answer when she was met with silence.

"Alright, get yourselves comfortable, it'll make this easier," Rose said with a small smile as she started getting comfortable.

The twins looked at each other, and took advantage of the moment, laying their heads in her lap.

"What are you two doing?" Rose questioned, opening her eyes to look at them.

"Getting comfortable."

Rose rolled her eyes and smiled slightly, knowing she should have expected that. She adjusted herself to get comfortable and smiled, "Now, we're going to breathe on a rhythm. I learned a spell in _Animagus or Not_ that will help us time our breathing. The main goal is to just let your mind drift, let your breathing stay even, and don't fall asleep. You'll sorta fall into a trancelike state."

The twins nodded, already very comfortable and exceedingly happy that she had allowed their heads to stay there. They heard her mutter " _conserva tempus,"_ and a voice in all of their heads started commanding them when to breath in and when to breathe out. She then muttered, " _vox hortus,_ " and soothing noise filled the air.

Rose immediately relaxed and fell into herself, while the twins struggled a bit. They found their minds racing so much that they could hardly think about meditating, but with the noise and the voice they eventually succumbed.

They thought of everything; school, family, friends, life. They found that they could hardly stop thinking once they started, but soon enough they were pulled out of the trance, as Rose was moving to get up.

"Oi, where are you going?" Fred asked as she moved their heads off her lap.

"To class. Want to walk me there?" was her coy response.

"I will," George said at once, as he got up and ended the spells.

They walked her to her Defense Against the Dark Arts class, telling her to tell them in Lockhart did anything. They carried her books for her, and wouldn't leave her alone. They dropped the books off next to Hermione, completely embarrassing her in front of everyone when they placed sloppy kisses on her cheeks.

She flopped into her chair groaning and hiding her very red face, ignoring Hermione's laughter.

Now that the whole class was seated, Lockhart cleared his throat loudly and silence fell. He reached forward, picked up Nevill's copy of _Travels with Trolls_ , and held it up to show his own, winking portrait on the front.

"Me," he said, pointing at it and winking as well. "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of _Witch Weekly's_ Most-Charming-Smile Award- but I don't talk about that. I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by _smiling_ at her!"

He waited for them to laugh; a few people smiled weakly.

"I see you've all bought a complete set of my books- well done. I thought we'd start today with a little quiz. Nothing to worry about- just to check how well you've read them, how much you've taken in-"

When he handed out the test papers he returned to the front of the class and said, "You have thirty minutes - start - _now_!"

Rose looked down at her paper and read:

 _What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?_

 _What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition?_

 _What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date?_

On and on it went, over three sides of paper, right down to:

 _54\. When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday, and what would his ideal gift be?_

Half an hour later, Lockhart collected the papers and rifled through them in front of the class.

"Tut, tut - hardly any of you remember that my favorite color is lilac. I say so in _Year with the Yeti_. And a few of you need to read _Wandering with Werewolves_ more carefully- I clearly state in chapter twelve that my ideal birthday gift would be harmony between all magic and non-magic peoples- though I wouldn't say no to a large bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhiskey!"

He gave them another roguish wink. Ron was now staring at Lockhart with an expression of disbelief on his face; Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas, who were sitting in front, were shaking with silent laughter. Hermione, on the other hand, was listening to Lockhart with rapt attention and gave a start when he mentioned her name.

"... but Miss Hermione Granger knew my secret ambition is to rid the world of evil and market my own range of hair-care potions- good girl! In fact" -he flipped her paper over- "full marks! Where is Miss Hermione Granger?"

Hermione raised a trembling hand.

"Excellent!" beamed Lockhart. "Quite excellent! Take ten points for Gryffindor! And so- to business-"

He bent down behind his desk and lifted a large, covered cage onto it.

"Now- be warned! It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizardkind! You may find yourselves facing your worst fears in this room. Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I am here. All I ask is that you remain calm."

Rose noticed Harry looking around his book fort to see the cage. She sighed, knowing this would be terrible. Lockhart placed a hand on the cover. Dean and Seamus had stopped laughing now. Neville was cowering in his front row seat.

"I must ask you not to scream," said Lockhart in a low voice. "It might provoke them."

As the whole class held its breath, Lockhart whipped off the cover.

"Yes," he said dramatically. " _Freshly caught Cornish pixies."_

Seamus Finnigan couldn't control himself. He let out a snort of laughter that even Lockhart couldn't mistake for a scream of terror.

"Yes?" He smiled at Seamus.

Rose came to the rescue, knowing Seamus would put his foot in his mouth, "I think he just doesn't understand how _freshly caught_ Cornish pixies could be worse than those that were being held for awhile, professor. Perhaps you could teach us all?"

Lockhart stared at Rose for a moment before waggling a finger annoyingly as Seamus. "Devilish and tricky little blighters! The fresher they are, the angrier they are. They simply can't stand being held captive, even by someone as devilishly handsome as me."

Hermione swooned, Rose gagged.

The pixies were electric blue and about eight inches high, with pointed faces and voices so shrill it was like listening to a lot of budgies arguing. The moment the cover had been removed, they had started jabbering and rocketing around, rattling the bars and making bizarre faces at the people nearest them.

"Right, then," Lockhart said loudly. "Let's see what you make of them!" And he opened the cage.

It was pandemonium. The pixies shot in every direction like rockets. Two of them seized Neville by the ears and lifted him into the air, no amount of tugging on Rose's part deterring them. Several shot straight through the window, showering the back row with broken glass. The rest proceeded to wreck the classroom more effectively than a rampaging rhino. They grabbed ink bottled and sprayed the class with them, shredded books and papers, tore pictures from the walls, up-ended the waste basket, grabbed bags and books and threw them out of the smashed window; within minutes, half the class was sheltering under desks and Neville was swinging from the iron chandelier.

"Come on now- round them up, round them up, they're only pixies," Lockhart shouted.

He rolled up his sleeves, brandished his wand, and bellowed, " _peskipiksi Pesternomi!"_

It had absolutely no effect; one of the pixies seized his wand and threw it out of the window, too. Lockhart gulped and dived under his own desk, narrowly avoiding being squashed by Neville, who fell a second later as the chandelier gave way.

The bell rang and there was a mad rush toward the exit. In the relative calm that followed, Lockhart straightened up, caught sight of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Rose, who were almost at the door, and said, "Well, I'll ask you four to just nip the rest of them back into their cage." He swept past them and shut the door quickly behind him.

"Can you _believe_ him?" roared Ron as one of the remaining pixies bit him painfully on the ear.

"He just wants to give us some hands-on experience," said Hermione, immobilizing to pixies at once with a clever Freezing Charm and stuffing them back into their cage.

" _Hands on?!_ " yelled Rose as she did the same charm as Hermione.

"Hermione, he didn't have a clue what he was doing-" said Harry, who was trying to grab a pixie dancing out of reach with its tongue out.

"Rubbish," said Hermione. "You've read his books- look at all those amazing things he's done-"

"He _says_ he's done," Ron muttered.

Rose agreed.

Rose spent a lot of time over the next few days dodging out of sight whenever she saw Gilderoy Lockhart. The twins thought it amusing, at first, but then realized that perhaps she had a good reason, as Harry was also doing it too. She also meditated with the twins every night, and they were making great progress. The twins could now sit for a full two hours during meditation, and didn't even need the spells to assist them, although they appreciated them.

In fact, all was going so well that they were going to try to get in touch with their inner animal on Saturday (they were sure it would be an all day occurrence). Rose and the twin's plans were dashed, however, when Oliver Wood shook them awake and in turn the twins told Harry to wake his sister.

Rose woke with a start when her brother plopped into her dream, and told her rather rudely to get out of bed because the twins wanted to talk. Rose got dressed as slowly as she dared, and threw her hair into a high ponytail, not bothering to brush out the mess that it had become. She wandered down to the common room and the twins, in quidditch robes, lead her out of the castle.

"Why did I have to wake up?" Rose groaned.

"Because you want to see us get all-"

"Fred!"

"Sorry Rose," Fred said with a smirk, not sorry at all.

Once Fred and George went into the changing room Rose went to the stadium and got her first unfortunate encounter with Colin Creevy.

"Woah, you're Rose Potter!"

Rose took in the very small, mousy-haired boy that she'd occasionally seen talking to Harry and sighed.

"Yes, I suppose I am. And you are…?"

"I'm- I'm Colin Creevey! I'm in Gryffindor, too."

"Oh. Well, it's nice to meet you, Colin," Rose muttered, laying down in the stands, still not awake and not understanding why she had been dragged out here.

"D'you think- would it be all right if- can I have a picture?"

"A picture?" Rose asked in disbelief.

"Yeah! I already have some of Harry, but I need proof that I met you, too! And, you are very pretty."

Rose blushed and sighed, "Look, Colin, I'm sorry, but I haven't even brushed my hair today!"

"And you're still this pretty?" He looked starstruck.

Rose groaned and rubbed her face, knowing she was bright red.

"Colin, personally, I just want to sleep. Quidditch isn't really my thing and I'm only here for my friends."

"I'll be quiet."

Rose sighed and sat up enough to glare at the boy still hopefully holding his camera, "Just no pictures of me sleeping."

"Okay, Rose!"

Rose laid back down on the stands, and not too terribly long later Hermione and Ron came into the stands.

"Rose, are you sleeping?" Hermione asked incredulously.

"Nah, her face is getting red, she's awake," Ron said wisely. "What're you doing here Colin?"

"Waiting for Harry to start practicing!"

Rose forced Hermione to sit and put her head in the other girls lap, groaning tiredly.

"We have some toast and marmalade, Rose. If you'd like some. There's enough for you too, Colin."

Rose finally sat up and snatched some food from her friends, ignoring them as they called out to Harry. Colin started frantically climbing the rows to get to the highest seats to take better pictures of Harry as soon as Harry kicked off.

Rose did, however, start paying attention when she saw several people in green robes walk onto the field, with broomsticks in their hands. Rose shot out of her seat and onto the field, her long hair flowing in the wind behind her.

She reached them all in time to hear Gred ask, "Aren't you Lucius Malfoy's son?"

"Funny you should mention Draco's father," said Flint as the whole Slytherin team smiled more broadly. "Let me show you the generous gift he's made to the Slytherin team."

All seven of them held out their broomsticks. Seven highly polished, brand-new handles and seven sets of fine gold lettering spelling the words _Nimbus Two Thousand and One_ gleamed under the Gryffindors noses in the early morning sun.

"Very latest model. Only came out last month," said Flint carelessly, flicking a speck of dust from the end of his own. "I believe it outstrips the old Two Thousand series by a considerable amount. As for the old Cleansweeps" - he smiled nastily at Fred and George, who were both clutching Cleansweep Fives- "sweeps the board with them."

None of the Gryffindor team could think of anything to say for a moment. Rose was seething at the injustice of the situation and was glaring openly at Malfoy who she could tell was becoming uncomfortable, but was smirking so broadly his eyes were reduced to slits.

"Oh, look," said Flint. "A Field invasion."

Ron and Hermione were crossing the grass to see what was going on.

"What's happening?" Ron asked Harry. "Why aren't you playing? And what's _he_ doing here?"

He was looking at Malfoy, taking in his Slytherin Quidditch robes.

"I'm the new Slytherin Seeker, Weasley," said Malfoy, smugly. "Everyone's just been admiring the brooms my father's bought our team."

Ron gaped and Rose groaned, knowing this would further fuel Draco's ego.

"Good, aren't they?" said Malfoy smoothly. "But perhaps the Gryffindor team will be able to raise some gold and get new brooms, too. You could raffle off those Cleansweep Fives; I expect a museum would bid for them."

The Slytherin team howled with laughter.

"Draco!" Rose said with a growl.

"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to _buy_ their way in," said Hermione sharply. " _They_ got in on pure talent."

The smug look on Malfoy's face flickered, and Rose knew at once that his pride had been insulted.  
"Draco don't you dare!"

This drew the attention of both teams and Draco glared openly at Rose.

"You don't control me, Potter!"

Rose flinched at the use of her last name and growled, "Then at least control yourself!"

Draco swelled like a bullfrog, but Flint put his hand on his shoulder, watching Rose warily, "Draco, It's best to leave it."

"You don't-!" Draco started but with one sharp look from Flint he was silenced.

"Get off the team you lot, it's ours for the day."

The Gryffindors begrudgingly got off the field and Rose sighed as Colin followed her to the Gryffindor common room.

"So, that was the Slytherin team?"

"Yes, Colin."

"Who was the short blonde one. He looked at you weird."

"His name's Draco Malfoy."

"Isn't his father a- a Death Eater?"

This made Rose pause and turn to look at the now blushing Colin, "And where did you hear that?"

"Just… around."

Rose held back a growl, "Yes. He was found innocent, though. Doesn't stop him from being a raging prick, now does it?" She continued walking and started ignoring all of Colin's questions. She waved goodbye to him at the bottom of the staircase to the girl's dorm and went to shower and brush her hair.

When she finally came back down, Fred and George were waiting for her.

"Look, Rose, we-"

"Don't start. Do you think we're ready for the next step?" Rose said, interrupting them.

They paused then nodded their heads, "Yeah, let's try."

They went into the twins and Lee room, nodding to Lee once they all piled onto George's bed, in their typical position. The boys silenced the area and looked at Rose expectantly.

"Well, what did the book say?" they asked after a moment of silence.

"Well… It said if we really knew about ourselves, then the next two parts would come together. We may umm… We may glow a bit? And… Okay, so what we have to do-"

Fred cut Rose off, "It's okay to be nervous Rose."

"Yeah, there's nothing to worry about," George said, grabbing onto her left hand.

"Besides, you know, managing to block our animal from us forever."

"Yeah, that's it."

Rose groaned and held onto the George's hand a bit tightly, "Guys, I really want this."

"We know."

And with the twins support, Rose cast her normal spells and they dove into themselves.

Rose found that his was much harder than it normally was. Normally she was able to just drift through her own mind, but suddenly she was searching for something, anything to lead her to the right direction. She attached herself to passing emotions, hoping the stronger ones would lead her to her animal. She finally realized, that perhaps drifting as she normally did wouldn't cut it, so she started pushing herself towards where she believed her center was.

She pushed through many colors, some pastel, some jewel tones, and looked around in amazement as they started disappearing and nature started showing up around her. She was in what she assumed was a rainforest, and it was creepily silent. She looked around not understanding what was going on until she was met with her eyes in feline form staring back at her. She blinked in confusion while the eyes just stared at her. She couldn't even identify what type of cat she was in the darkness. Slowly a Black Jaguar came out from the shadows and growled warningly at Rose before leading her deeper into the rainforest, slowly making their way to a giant blue pillar.

Rose gasped in amazement as she felt the energy coming off of it in waves. She studied the pillar and realized that it was her magical core. She circled it, noticing how although mostly blue it had deep red tendrils going through it. Rose frowned and thoughtfully reached out to it but paused when her inner animal moved her hand away, grunting warningly.  
"What? Aren't I supposed to touch it?"

The Jaguar shook its head as if it gave up on her and pushed her away a bit before sitting in front of her.

"Do I have to do something first?"

A nod of the head.

"Okay… Ummmm… Well, what?"

 _Name_.

"Name? What does that- Oh! I'm supposed to name you!"

Another nod. Rose sighed and started pacing thoughtfully.

"Midnight? No. Elvira? No. Phantom? No, too creepy. Uhhhh…" Rose groaned and ran a hand through her hair. "Shade, Shadow, Pepper, Velvet, Soot- Oh! I know! Misty! Because you live in a rain forest and blend into things!

Misty nodded her head in assent and moved aside so Rose could touch her magical core.

There was a flash of light, and then all Rose knew was darkness.


	6. Chapter 6

Rose was awoken by the twins shaking her. She groaned and held her pulsing head.

"Wha- what happened?"

"We're going to assume you got farther than we did. You started muttering and you turned bright blue for a minute there. We couldn't even get to you," George stated worriedly.

"Got thrown off of your lap and everything-"

"Threw us out of our meditation-"

"Say, you look a bit different." They said together.

Rose stared at them wide eyed, and rushed out of their room and into hers so she could look in the mirror.

True to the twins word, she did look different. Her hair appeared shorter, although that was only because it was now an even wavier mess. That was really the only difference, but Rose knew it was too noticeable, and she was sure someone would notice. She quickly scoured _Animagus or Not_ and found a passage she had ignored that stated that appearance changes were possible. She covered her face and took a deep breath returning to the common room where the twins were waiting anxiously.

"It's okay, it's normal," she said in a low voice.

The twins nodded and patted her shoulder, leading her out of the common room.

"Look, we missed lunch because we were meditating, and we haven't eaten anything today. Dinner's about to start so we're going-" Fred started.

"And you're coming with us-"

"Whether you like it or not," They finished together, still dragging her towards the Great Hall.

"Well, it's not like I have a choice, now is it?"

"She's so smart," Fred said with a smirk towards George.

Although the twins wouldn't outwardly say it, they were very worried about Rose. After all, it wasn't every day that someone glowed blue and made the people around her fly away from them.

They sat her between them and put food on her plate before she had a chance to do so herself. Katie Bell sat across from them, next to Lee, and smiled happily at the twins, "Hullo, guys!"

"Hullo, Katie," the twins said together, still eating as Katie got her own plate.

"That was the weirdest practice, wasn't it?"

"Suppose so," George said.

"Not every day you get invaded by Slytherin," Fred continued, giving his undivided attention to Katie.

"I know. Normally I'd be really mad, ya know? But considering how early in the morning it was I don't really mind."

Rose frowned thoughtfully as Fred and George kept conversing with Katie. There seemed to be something rising up inside of her, and it wouldn't go away no matter how hard she pushed it down. She excused herself from the table and walked over to her twin, who was making his way out of the Great Hall with Ron.

"Hey, heading to the common room?" she asked.

They both nodded rather sedately and she noticed immediately, "What's wrong?"

"Detention," they both groaned.

Rose was stumped for a moment, "Whatever for?"

They stared at her as if she had three heads.

"Oh! The car thing?"

They both groaned and nodded Rose shook her head, "You know, you never explained why you two did that."

"We didn't want to!" Ron burst.

"We panicked!" Harry exclaimed.

"Well, why were you panicking? You could've contacted me," Rose tapped her head.  
"I tried," Harry groused. "Look, the barrier shut before it was supposed to, it blocked us from the entrance. It was all we could do to stop the muggles figuring out what was happening, we weren't thinking clearly."

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Ron agreed.

Rose hummed thoughtfully, "Did you tell Dumbledore?"

"Yeah, we did. Probably the only reason we weren't expelled."

Rose shook her head and lead them to the common room through the secret passages that she knew, knowing they had no idea where they were anymore until they reached the portrait of the fat lady.  
"Well, what are you two doing for detention?"

"Cleaning the Trophies in the Trophy room without magic," Ron groaned, plopping into a seat.

"Helping Lockhart with fan mail."

Rose let out a low whistle and shook her head, "That sucks."

"You're so lucky that you haven't been cornered by him yet!"

Rose didn't have the heart to tell Harry that it wasn't luck. In fact, she had taken to taking the Marauder's Map with her everywhere as the twins and her worked on making their own. She struggled through figuring out the spells that were on the parchment to make it work, and she happily used the map to avoid Lockhart altogether. She didn't want anything to do with the man, but she also knew that she couldn't avoid him forever.

Soon enough the twins came in while still talking to Katie, and Lee trailed behind them. The little monster filled Rose again and she sighed, closing her eyes. Harry immediately picked up on the change of atmosphere.

 _ **What's wrong?**_

Rose shook her head and blocked her twin out, although not before he saw the Black Jaguar and the twins in her mind.

"I'm tired guys, I hope you don't have to work too hard during your detentions," Rose said as she stood.

"Alright Rose," Ron said without missing a beat. "See you tomorrow, yeah?"

"Yeah."

Rose escaped into the girl's dorm, but Lavender and Parvati were already there.

"Alright, Rose?" Parvati asked.

"I… I'm not sure,"

"You look different," Lavender noted.

"I do?"

"No, I think she just looks sad," Parvati said thoughtfully.

"Don't see what she has to be sad about. The-Girl-Who-Lived, defeated Voldemort, has incredibly beautiful hair, good eyes, best friends with the Weasley Twins, and top of the class with Granger. And have you _seen_ her skin?"

Rose sighed and flopped onto her bed, not bothering to draw the curtains around her bed.

"Oh," they said knowingly. "Boy issues. Weasley twins?"

"Fred and George have nothing to do with my mood," Rose grumbled as she pulled Maple off of the pillows and onto her lap.

"I disagree. I saw how you walked away from dinner when they started talking to that one girl," Parvati said.

"It's Katie Bell, Parvati. She's a chaser on the quidditch team," Lavender said knowingly.

"Oooo! So they already have stuff in common too!"

"Look, there's nothing even going on between Fred, George, and I! I have no reason to be upset that their talking to Katie, I mean, she _is_ on the quidditch team with them!"

Lavender and Parvati shared a knowing look, "Say, where did you get that charm bracelet, Rose?"

Rose looked down at her wrists, having forgotten completely that she even wore bracelets as they had become such a part of her. Draco's snake seemed to wink at her from her wrist and the Twin's charm bracelet sparkled in the light. Rose blushed bright red and hid her head underneath a pillow as she groaned, ignoring the girls gales of laughter.

Rose slept fairly well that night until she started hearing voices in her head. Her brother's panicked voice, and a voice that could chill bone marrow, a voice filled with breathtaking, ice-cold venom.

October arrived, spreading a damp chill over the grounds and into the Pomfrey, the nurse, was kept busy by a sudden spate of colds among the staff and students. Her Pepperup potion worked instantly, though it left the drinker smoking at the ears for several hours afterward. Ginny Weasley, who had been looking pale, was bullied into taking some by Percy. The steam pouring from under her vivid hair gave the impression that her whole head was on fire.

The same treatment was almost given to Rose by Harry. One glare in his direction quickly deterred him, though, and he walked away muttering about mental sisters. The Weasley twins also tried their hand at helping her to feel better, but they learned that she was not one to be trifled with when she didn't feel 'good'. The only two people in the school who really knew what was going on with Rose were Lavender and Parvati, and for once they weren't telling a soul.

Raindrops the size of bullets thundered on the castle windows for days on end; the lake rose, the flower beds turned into muddy streams, and Hagrid's pumpkins swelled to the size of garden sheds. Oliver Wood's enthusiasm for regular training sessions was not dampened. He regularly took the team out to practice, and Rose was only partially glad for the distance it put between her and the twins because it also brought them and Katie closer. She stayed up late at night, struggling to sleep or meditating.

Soon the twins had reached her level of meditation, they made contact with their animals, and they were able to move onto the next step. They decided to wait until November though because then they'd be able to hold the mandrake leaf in their mouth for a month without the interruption of holidays. They decided that they were going to have a _very_ intense game of the silent game, where they couldn't talk to each other or anyone for that matter. They realized that there may be trouble in classes, specifically McGonagall's, but they would come to that at another point.

One day Rose had been talking to Hermione and Ron when her twin approached and told them all of his invitation to a deathday party. Rose easily deflected his offer to go, but Hermione was interested.

"A deathday party?" said Hermione keenly. "I bet there aren't many living people who can say they've been to one of those- it'll be fascinating!"

"It'll be dead boring," Rose warned as Ron spoke over her.

"Why would anyone want to celebrate the day they died? It sounds dead depressing to me…"

The rain was still lashing the windows, which were now inky black, but inside all looked bright and cheerful. The firelight glowed over the countless squashy armchairs where people sat reading, talking, doing homework, or in the case of Fred and George, trying to find out what would happen if you fed a filibuster firework to a salamander. Fred had 'rescued' the brilliant orange, fire-dwelling lizard from a Care of Magical Creatures class and it was now smoldering gently on a table surrounded by a knot of curious people. Rose also noted that Katie was standing rather close to the twins.

Rose excused herself from her brother's friends to go to talk to Neville Longbottom about a Herbology assignment when the salamander suddenly whizzed into the air, emitting loud sparks and bangs as it whirled wildly around the room. She grew red with rage for the poor salamander and joined Percy in yelling at Fred and George, although she secretly had to admit that the display of tangerine stars showering from the salamander's mouth was rather spectacular.

By the time Halloween arrived, Rose was ready to just get the mandrake leaf over and done with. The twins had laughed at her eagerness, but she knew that they were waiting just as eagerly. The school was happily anticipating their Halloween feast, but as usual, it brought a sense of sadness into Rose. Although she wouldn't trade Remus and Sirius for anything, she still mourned for the life she never got a chance to have.

The Great Hall had been decorated with the usual live bats, Hagrid's vast pumpkins had been carved into lanterns large enough for three men to sit in, and there were rumors that Dumbledore had booked a troupe of dancing skeletons for the entertainment. Rose noted that her twin wasn't at the feast, but she said nothing on the matter. She just enjoyed watching everyone enjoy themselves, and she managed to act as natural as she could.

However, someone noticed the change in her demeanor and much to her chagrin it wasn't the people that she wanted to have noticed.

When the wad of parchment hit the back of her head she had to resist a growl, but she grabbed it off of the floor and opened it, ignoring the twins curious glances.

 _You okay? I know it's Halloween, but you should enjoy yourself. -D_

Rose sighed and destroyed the parchment to everyone's confusion and she rubbed her face for a second. No, she mused, she wasn't alright. She excused herself from the table, knowing the feast was almost done and walked out of the Great Hall, knowing that Draco would follow her.

Sure enough, not long after she exited, he did as well.

"Well?"

Rose sighed and hugged him the stress of everything settling on her shoulders, "I guess we need to talk."

Rose realized that she hadn't talked to Draco outside of a classroom in a long while, so she pulled him into an abandoned classroom, making sure she had the Marauder's map with her before they settled in to talk. Draco didn't question her need to check a blank bit of parchment that looked ancient, he took everything in stride.

"Okay, look, Draco, there's… I feel so lost! I'm becoming an animagus!" Rose burst out.

Draco furrowed his brows and looked at her in confusion, "You mean, McGonagall is actually teaching you that?"

"No! I'm doing it off of a book and the information I have from my father that he left to me and Harry!"

"You realize that's insanely dangerous, right?"

"That's not what matters! Fred and George have started talking to Katie Bell!"

"They're Quidditch mates, right?"

"As more than that! They're getting all chummy! It's like she's trying to take my place as their best mate! Oh my merlin, what if she _does_?! I mean, they already have a lot in common! They play Quidditch together! What if she starts _dating_ one of them?!" Rose's hazel eyes opened wide with panic and she started tapping her leg anxiously.

"Woah, woah, where is all of this coming from? I mean, they're just _talking!_ "

"Everyone who gets into a relationship starts with just talking!"

Draco sighed and looked at Rose closely. He knew more about this upcoming school year than he was supposed to, and so he had a heavy weight on his shoulders to protect the girl in front of him. He didn't understand how anyone could be sitting there honestly worrying about who some low-life gingers were going to date, especially when it was the ginger in front of him. She was everything, and they were nothing, there was no reason for her to be interested in what they were doing.

Rose could tell that Draco was going to say something when she heard something.

" _...rip...tear...kill…"_

Rose gasped in fear and jumped up looking around in panic, Draco staring at her in disbelief.

"What are you doing? What's wrong, Rose?"

"It's… Oh, Merlin, that dream was _real!_ Draco we have to get out of here!"

"What are you talking about?"

"It's a voice I had a dream about! Draco, it's going to kill someone!"

" _...soo hungry...for so long…"_

Rose grew pale, "Don't you hear it?! It's getting louder!"

" _...kill...time to kill…"_

Indeed, the voice was growing louder, and she heard running too, she was about to run out of the room when Draco grabbed her and held her against her will.

"Draco, let go!"

"You're not going out there, you idiot! If you're hearing something only you can hear and it's _getting louder_ while talking about killing something you're not running towards it!"

The voice was growing fainter now, " _...I smell blood... I SMELL BLOOD!"_

Rose's stomach lurched-

"It's going to kill someone!" She shouted as she escaped Draco's arm, running into the hallway, seeing Harry, Hermione, and Ron. Harry also looked panicked.

"Harry!"

"Rose!"

They only took a second to look at each other before they ran up the next flight of steps three at a time, trying to listen over their own pounding footsteps-

They hurtled around the whole of the second floor, Ron and Hermione panting behind them, not stopping until they turned a corner into the last, deserted passage.

"Harry, Rose, _what_ was that all about?" said Ron, wiping the sweat off of his face. "I couldn't hear anything…"

But Hermione gave a sudden gasp, pointing down the corridor.

" _Look!"_

Something was shining on the wall ahead. They approached slowly, squinting through the darkness. Foot-high words had been daubed on the wall between two windows, shimmering in the light cast by the flaming torches.

 **THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN**

 **OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.**

"What's that thing- hanging underneath?" said Ron, a slight quiver in his voice.

As they edged nearer, Rose caught Harry as he slipped- there was a large puddle of water on the floor; everyone held each other's hands and they inched toward the message, eyes fixed on a dark shadow beneath it. All four of them realized what it was at once, and leapt backward with a splash.

Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat, was hanging by her tail from the torch bracket. She was stiff as a board, her eyes wide and staring.

For a few seconds, they didn't move. Then Ron said, "Let's get out of here."

"Shouldn't we try and help-" Harry began awkwardly.

"Trust me," Rose started to back away. "We don't want to be found here."

But it was too late. A rumble as though of distant thunder told them that the feast had just ended. From either end of the corridor where they stood came the sound of hundreds of feet climbing the stairs, and the loud, happy talk of well-fed people; next moment, students were crashing into the passage from both ends.

The chatter, the bustle, the noise died suddenly as the people in the front spotted the hanging cat. Harry, Ron, Rose, and Hermione stood alone, in the middle of the corridor, as silence fell among the mass of students pressing forward to see the grisly sight.

Then someone shouted through the quiet.  
"Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!"

It was Theodore Nott. He had pushed his way to the front of the crowd, his normally impassive eyes alive, his usually pale face flushed, as he grinned at the sight of the hanging, immobile cat.

Rose got a sick feeling in her stomach, suddenly realizing that perhaps she should've listened to Draco.

"What's going on here? What's going on?"


	7. Chapter 7

Attracted no doubt by Nott's shout, Argus Filch came shouldering his way through the crowd. Then he saw Mrs. Norris and fell back, clutching his face in horror.

"My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs. Norris?" he shrieked.

Then his popping eyes fell onto Harry.

" _You!_ " he screeched. " _You!_ You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll-"

" _Argus!_ "

Dumbledore had arrived on the scene, followed by a number of other teachers. In seconds, he had swept past Harry, Ron, and Hermione and detached Mrs. Norris from the torch bracket. Rose felt sick, wondering what she would've done if it had been Maple.

"Come with me, Argus," he said to Filch. "You, too, Mr. and Miss Potter, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger."

Lockhart stepped forward eagerly, his eyes on the sick looking Rose.

"My office is nearest, Headmaster- just upstairs- please feel free-"

"Thank you, Gilderoy," said Dumbledore.

The silent crowd parted to let them pass. Rose parted from her brother and her friend to hover by Filch's side, her empathy getting in the way of her knowledge of how terrible of a person he could be. Lockhart, looking excited and important, hurried after Dumbledore; so did Professors McGonagall and Snape.

As they entered Lockhart's darkened office there was a flurry of movement across the walls; Rose saw several of the Lockharts in the pictures dodging out of sight, their hair in rollers. The real Lockhart lit the candles on his desk and stood back. Dumbledore lay Mrs. Norris on the polished surface and began to examine her. Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged tense looks and sank into chairs outside of the pool of candlelight, watching. Rose, on the other hand, stood directly next to Filch, her eyes filling with tears as she watched the poor cat in front of her.

The tip of Dumbledore's long, crooked nose was barely an inch from Mrs. Norris's fur. He was looking at her closely through his half-moon spectacles, his long fingers gently prodding and poking. Professor McGonagall was bent almost as close, her eyes narrowed. Snape loomed behind them, half in shadow, wearing a most peculiar expression: it was as though he was trying hard not to smile. And Lockhart was hovering around all of them, making suggestions.

"It was definitely a curse that killed her- probably the Transmorgrifian Torture- I've seen it used many times, so unlucky I wasn't there, I know the very countercurse that would have saved her…"

Lockhart's comments were punctuated by Filch's dry, racking sobs. He had slumped into a chair by the desk, unable to look at Mrs. Norris, his face in his hands. Rose felt terrible for the man and gave him a handkerchief that she had so he had something to wipe his face with.

Dumbledore was now muttering strange words under his breath and tapping Mrs. Norris with his wand but nothing happened: she continued to look as though she had been recently stuffed.

"... I remember something very similar happening in Ouagadougou," said Lockhart, "a series of attacks, the full story is in my autobiography, I was able to provide the townsfolk with various amulets, which cleared the matter up at once…"

The photographs of Lockhart on the walls were all nodding in agreement as he talked. One of them had forgotten to remove his hairnet.

"With all due respect, Professor Lockhart, I think Professor Dumbledore needs to concentrate currently, and you can be a rather… distracting person," Rose muttered.

While Lockhart immediately clammed up, Snape stiffened up, "Five points from Gryffindor, Miss Potter."

At last, Dumbledore straightened up.

"She's not dead, Argus," he said softly.

"Not dead?" Choked Filch, looking through his fingers at Mrs. Norris. "But why's she all- all stiff and frozen?"

"She has been Petrified," said Dumbledore ("Ah! I thought so!" said Lockhart). "But how, I cannot say…"

"Ask _him!_ " shrieked Filch, turning his blotched and tearstained face to Harry.

"No second year could have done this," said Dumbledore firmly. "It would take Darm Magic of the most advanced-"

"He did it, he did it!" Filch spat, his pouchy face purpling. "You saw what he wrote on the wall! He found- in my office- he knows I'm a- I'm a-" Filch's face worked horribly. "He knows I'm a Squib!" he finished.

"I never _touched_ Mrs. Norris!" Harry said loudly, and Rose sighed, noting everyone staring at him.

"And even if he _did_ know you were a Squib, he didn't tell anyone. If he had it'd probably be all over the school by now," Rose defended.

"He saw by Kwikspell letter!" snarled Filch.

"If I might speak, Headmaster," said Snape from the shadows, and Rose's sense of foreboding increased; she knew Snape wouldn't help Harry in any manner.

"Potter and his friends may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said, a slight sneer curling his mouth as though he doubted it. "But we do have a set of suspicious circumstances here. Why wasn't he at the Halloween feast? Why did Miss Potter leave the feast? Why were they in the upstairs corridor at all?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione all launched into an explanation about the deathday party. "...there were hundreds of ghosts, they'll tell you we were there-"

"But why not join the feast afterward?" said Snape, his black eyes glittering in the candlelight. "Why go up to that corridor?"

Ron and Hermione looked at Harry, and Rose knew they were doomed.

"Because- because- because we were tired and wanted to go to bed," he said.

"Without any supper?" said Snape, a triumphant smile flickering across his gaunt face. "I didn't think ghosts provided food fit for living people at their parties."

"We weren't hungry," said Ron loudly as his stomach gave a huge rumble.

Snape's nasty smile widened.

"I suggest, Headmaster, that Potter is not being entirely truthful," he said. "It might be a good idea if he were deprived of certain privileges until he is ready to tell us the whole story. I personally feel he should be taken off the Gryffindor Quidditch team until he is ready, to be honest."

"Really, Severus," said Professor McGonagall sharply, "I see no reason to stop the boy playing Quidditch. This cat wasn't hit over the head with a broomstick. There is no evidence at all that Potter has done anything wrong."

Dumbledore was giving Harry a searching look.

"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus," he said firmly.

Snape looked furious. So did Filch.

"My cat has been Petrified!" he shrieked, his eyes popping. "I want to see some _punishment_!"

"We will be able to cure her, Argus," said Dumbledore patiently. "Professor Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As soon as they have reached their full size, I will have a potion made that will revive Mrs. Norris."

"I'll make it," Lockhart butted in. "I must have done it a hundred times. I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep-"

"Excuse me," said Snape icily. "But I believe I am the potions master at this school."

There was a very awkward pause.

"You three may go," Dumbledore said to Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

As they scurried out of the room everyone turned to Rose, and she knew it was her turn for interrogation.

"Miss Potter, if you would tell us why you left the Great Hall this evening," Dumbledore said.

Rose started playing with her hair, a nervous tick she had when she couldn't do as her father once had and run his fingers through it, "Well, it's Halloween…"

"We know what day it is, Miss Potter," Snape said, his eyes narrowing in on her.

"I'm glad, Professor. Anyways," Rose continued before he could take points from her, "it's the anniversary of the death of my parents."

This was met by silence, so Rose pushed forward, "Not only is this the anniversary of my parent's death, but Harry wasn't at the feast. I've never… I mean… He's always there for me on Halloween. And then I got a note-"

"A note?" Snape sneered.

"Yes, Professor, a note. I got a note and it just sort of broke me down. I'm sure you know who the note is from."

Dumbledore, McGonagall, Lockhart, and Filch looked confused; Snape, on the other hand, backed down. He knew of Draco and Rose's relationship.

"And why were you in the corridor?" Dumbledore pushed.

"I was heading back to the common room, sir."

They all nodded, her story having been much better than her twins. The clock chimed midnight, and everyone seemed to realize that it was much past time for the girl in front of them to be in bed.

"Straight to bed, Miss Potter, no dilly-dallying," Dumbledore said, his twinkling eyes seeming to see deep inside of her.

She unknowingly put up Occlumency shields.

"Of course sir. And Mr. Filch, I'm really sorry about your cat. If you'd like I could probably convince my cat, Maple, to help you with your rounds?"

Filch just shook his head, although he did look touched that she had thought to offer.

With that Rose walked out of the room and to her common room, knowing that she did well not telling them about the voice.

The next day, Fred, George, and Rose staged a very public, and very loud argument.

"Listen, I don't want to hear either of your voices right now!" Rose yelled, slamming her charms book shut. "I'm _trying_ to study!"

"Well, we don't want to hear you talk either!" Fred said, acting affronted.

"Yeah, in fact, we challenge you!" George said, picking up where his brother left off.

"No, not that!" Rose groaned covering her face.

"That," the twins said seriously. "We challenge you to silence!"

"The silent game," someone in the background gasped.

"Fine! I'll beat both of you!" Rose yelled, her fiery hair adding to her attitude.

"We'll beat you first!"

They stormed off in opposite directions, no one noticing them slip something into their mouths.

Once the news of their argument and war reached Dumbledore, they were given chalkboards and chalk. When someone asked why for them Dumbledore said that this way they could still answer questions in class.

For a few days, the school could talk of little else but the attack on Mrs. Norris. Filch kept it fresh in everyone's minds by pacing the spot where she had been attacked, as though he thought the attacker might come back. Rose had seen him scrubbing the message on the wall with Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover, but to no effect; the words still gleamed as brightly as ever on the stone. When Filch wasn't guarding the scene of the crime, he was sulking red-eyed through the corridors, lunging out at unsuspecting students and trying to put them in detention for things like "breathing loudly" and "looking happy."

Ginny seemed very disturbed by Mrs. Norris's fate. Rose knew she was a great cat lover.

"But you haven't really got to know Mrs. Norris," Ron told her bracingly. "Honestly, we're much better off without her." Ginny's lip trembled. "Stuff like this doesn't often happen at Hogwarts," Ron assured her. "They'll catch the maniac who did it and have him out of here in no time. I just hope he's got time to Petrify Filch before he's expelled. I'm only joking-" Ron added hastily as Ginny blanched and Rose hit him with her chalkboard.

The attack had also had an effect on Hermione. It was quite usual for Hermione to spend a lot of time reading, but she was now doing almost nothing else. No one could get much response from her when they asked what she was up to.

Rose was facing her own issues, too. Draco had become scarily distant from her. He, of course, knew why she was _actually_ being silent, and she could tell that he didn't condone it. Not only that, but the leaf tasted terrible when combined with certain food and drink, and sometimes it took all she had to not spit it out.

Five days into Rose's torture she was sitting in History of Magic, doodling on a piece of paper because she studied this class independently. In first year, the other Gryffindors had too, but no one wanted to bother this year, so Rose was the only one in her little study group. History of Magic was the dullest subject on her schedule. Professor Binns, who taught it, was their only ghost teacher, and the most exciting thing that ever happened in his classes was his entering the room through the blackboard. Ancient and shriveled, many people said he hadn't noticed he was dead. He had simply got up to teach one day and left his body behind him in an armchair in front of the staff room fire; his routine had not varied in the slightest since.

Today was as boring as ever. Professor Binns opened his notes and began to read in a flat drone like an old vacuum cleaner until nearly everyone in the class was in a deep stupor. He had been speaking for half an hour when something happened that had never happened before. Hermione put up her hand.

Professor Binns, glancing up in the middle of a deadly dull lecture on the International Warlock Convention of 1289, looked amazed.

"Miss- er-?"

"Granger, Professor. I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets," said Hermione in a clear voice.

Dean Thomas, who had been sitting with his mouth hanging open, gazing out of the window, jerked out of his trance; Lavender Brown's head came up off her arms and Neville's elbow slipped off his desk.

Professor Binns blinked.

"My subject is History of Magic," he said in a dry, wheezy voice. "I deal with _facts,_ Miss Granger, not myths and legends." He cleared his throat with a small noise like chalk snapping and continued, "In September of that year, a subcommittee of Sardinian sorcerers-"

He stuttered to a halt. Hermione's hand was waving in the air again.

"Miss Grant?"

"Please, sir, don't legends always have a basis in fact?"

Professor Binns was looking at her in such amazement, Rose was sure no student had ever interrupted him before, alive or dead.

"Well," said Professor Binns slowly, "yes, one could argue that I suppose." He peered at Hermione as though he had never seen a student properly before. "However, the legend of which you speak is such a very _sensational_ , even _ludicrous_ tale-"

But the whole class was now hanging on Professor Binn's every word. He looked dimly at them all, every face turned to his.

"Oh, very well," he said slowly. "Let me see… the Chamber of Secrets…

"You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago- the precise date is uncertain- by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four school Houses are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built this castle together, far from prying Muggle eyes, for it was an age when magic was feared by common people, and witches and wizards suffered much persecution."

He paused, gazed blearily around the room, and continued.

"For a few years, the founders worked in harmony together, seeking out youngsters who showed signs of magic and bringing them to the castle to be educated. But then disagreements sprang up between them. A rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin wished to be more _selective_ about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. He disliked taking students of Muggle Parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy. After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school."

Professor Binns paused again, pursing his lips, looking like a wrinkled old tortoise.

"Reliable historical sources tell us this much," he said. "But these honest facts have been obscured by the fanciful legend of the Chamber of Secrets. The story goes that Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in the castle, of which the other founders knew nothing.

"Slytherin, according to the legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic."

There was silence as he finished telling the story, but it wasn't the usual, sleepy silence that filled Professor Binns's classes. There was unease in the air as everyone continued to watch him, hoping for more. Professor Binns looked faintly annoyed.

"The whole thing is arrant nonsense, of course," he said. "Naturally, the school has been searched for evidence of such a chamber, many times, by the most learned witches and wizards. It does not exist. A tale told to frighten the gullible."

Hermione's hand was back in the air. Rose resisted the urge to push it back down.

"Sir- what exactly do you mean by the 'horror within' the Chamber?"

"That is believed to be some sort of monster, which the Heir of Slytherin alone can control," said Professor Binns in his dry, reedy voice.

The class exchanged nervous looks.

"I tell you, the thing does not exist," said Professor Binns, shuffling his notes. "There is no Chamber and no monster."

"But, sir," said Seamus Finnigan, "if the Chamber can only be opened by Slytherin's true heir, no one else _would_ be able to find it, would they?"

"Nonsense, O'Flaherty," said Professor Binns in an aggravated tone. "If a long succession of Hogwarts headmasters and headmistresses haven't found the thing-"

"But, Professor," piped up Parvati Patil, "you'd probably have to use Dark Magic to open it-"

"Just because a wizard _doesn't_ use Dark Magic doesn't mean he _can't_ , Miss Pennyfeather," snapped Professor Binns. "I repeat, if the likes of Dumbledore-"

"But maybe you've got to be related to Slytherin, so Dumbledore couldn't-" began Dean Thomas, but Professor Binns had had enough.

"That will do," he said sharply. "It is a myth! It does not exist! There is not a shred of evidence that Slytherin ever built so much as a secret broom cupboard! I regret telling you such a foolish story! We will return, if you please, to _history_ , to solid, believable, verifiable _fact_!"

And within five minutes, the class had sunk back into its usual stupor.


	8. Chapter 8

The night after the most interesting History of Magic class ever, Hermione went to talk to Rose with some interesting news.

"Rose, Ron, and Harry are convinced that Malfoy is the heir of Slytherin," Hermione said.

Rose hummed thoughtfully, although she couldn't manage to get the grin off of her face. She quickly wrote on her chalkboard and held it up.

 _And you're not?_

"Well, no. But we're going to find out."

This sent warning bells off in Rose's mind. How could they possibly think to find out if it was Draco? She quickly wiped off the board and wrote again.

 _How?_

"Well, we're going to make a potion-" Hermione had barely gotten the word potion out of her mouth before Rose was writing again.

 _Veritaserum is too hard to make, so Polyjuice? Don't do it Hermione._

"Well, why not? We need to know!"

 _It could be anyone! Why not Nott? You heard what he yelled!_

"Speaking of which… This has been bothering me…" Hermione sat on Rose's bed and looked down. "What is a 'mudblood?'"

Rose sighed and wrote quickly and rather small so she could fit everything onto her board.

 _It's pureblood idiot talk for someone of unpure blood. It's a derogatory term for muggle-borns. In their eyes, muggle-borns blood is so dirty (because it isn't magical blood) that it's mud._

Hermione frowned and exclaimed, "That's terrible!"

Rose just wiped off her board to let Hermione process that. Then, finally, "Malfoy has never called me that."

Rose looked at her, questioning where she was going with this.

"I mean, if _he_ hasn't called me that, and he's supposed to be the Heir of Slytherin… That means he probably isn't! It's more likely it's Nott!"

Rose nodded her head slowly, smiling at her friend's ingenuity.

"That's great! That means I don't need to make that potion! You're the best, Rose!" Hermione said, hugging Rose tightly.

Rose patted her friend's back and once Hermione got off her bed she pulled the curtains and frowned. So her brother and Ron still thought of Draco as a terrible person. This may not bode well for Draco. But with Hermione there to keep them on track, Rose wasn't as worried as she could be. What she was really worried about was Lockhart's class the next day.

Since the disastrous episode of the pixies, Professor Lockhart had not brought live creatures to class. Instead, he read passages from his books to them and sometimes reenacted some of the most dramatic bits. He usually picked Harry to help him with those reconstructions; so far, Harry had been forced to play a simple Transylvanian villager whom Lockhart had cured of a Babbling Curse, a yeti with a head cold, and a vampire who had been unable to eat anything except lettuce since Lockhart had dealt with him. Rose hadn't been picked on yet, and for that she was thankful. But she was always afraid of the possibility.

Harry was hauled to the front of the class during their next Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, this time acting as a werewolf. This made Rose feel sick to her stomach, but she (obviously) kept silent.

"Nice loud howl, Harry- exactly- and then, if you'll believe it, I pounced- like this- _slammed_ him to the floor- thus- with one hand, I managed to hold him down- with my other, I put my wand to his throat- I then screwed up my remaining strength and performed the immensely complex Homorphus Charm- he let out a piteous moan- go on, Harry- higher than that- good- the fur vanished- the fangs shrank- and he turned back into a man. Simple, yet effective- and another village will remember me forever as the hero who delivered them from the monthly terror of werewolf attacks."

The bell rang and Lockhart got to his feet.

"Homework- compose a poem about my defeat of the Wagga Wagga Werewolf! Signed copies of _Magical Me_ to the author of the best one!"

Rose walked out and met the twins, who although were 'upset' with her still met with her after Defense Against the Dark Arts to make sure she was okay.  
 _No problems in class?_ George wrote.

 _No, Harry just had to act out being a werewolf. Lockhart is such a fraud._

 _We know_. Both twins wrote.

They walked to the common room and sat at one of the tables, Lee Jordan sitting with Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell at another table. Rose sighed quietly, accidentally drawing the attention of the boys. At their questioning glance, she just shrugged and smiled.

 _Quidditch match tomorrow, right? Slytherin?_

They both nodded and Rose wished them luck before they all started working on their homework.

Rose woke early the next day and sighed. It had been seven days since she could talk, and seven days since she could eat freely. The leaf, thankfully, wasn't nearly as hard anymore, but she did secretly hope that it never turned to mush, as holding that in her mouth would be _much_ harder.

She went and took a shower before getting dressed and forcing her hair into a dutch braid. She hummed in contentment and was about to leave when Hermione commented on her hair.

"Rose, your hair looks beautiful today!" she said with a large smile. "I wish my hair could do stuff like that."

 _It can. I can show you if you want me to?_

Hermione's eyes shone like stars at the offer, "Really? I'd love that!"

Rose checked the time, an hour to spare. She could work with an hour. She quickly pulled Hermione into the bathroom, washing her hair for her, and then added some of her Grandfather's secret Sleekeazy's Hair Potion while her hair was still wet. Hermione went to touch her hair but Rose slapped her hand away and magically dried her hair, thankful that she could cast that particular spell non-verbally. She hummed happily at Hermione's hair, which was normally an unruly mess but was now falling into a very pretty mass of curls. Pulling her back into the dormitory, she smiled as Parvati and Lavender exclaimed at how pretty Hermione's hair already looked. Hermione was blushing happily, but Rose wasn't done.

She sat Hermione down and frowned thoughtfully, unsure of what to do with it exactly. She knew there were many things she _could_ do, but what would fit Hermione? She asked Hermione for her opinion and let her look at herself in the mirror. She gasped loudly as she touched her curly hair. It still managed to look like silk, and shone in the sun and she smiled brightly at Rose.

"I don't think I need anything else, truly. Thank you so much!" Hermione hugged Rose tightly, and Rose offered her services to Parvati and Lavender, who politely declined.

Rose and Hermione walked down to the Great Hall, everyone complimenting Hermione's hair. Hermione was glowing happily with all of the attention.

As eleven o'clock approached, the whole school started to make its way down to the Quidditch stadium. It was a muggy sort of day with a hint of thunder in the air. Rose sat with Hermione, Ron, and Neville. She didn't have a good feeling about the day ahead of them.

As the teams walked out onto the pitch, a roar of noise greeted them, although there was much more for Gryffindor than for Slytherin. Madam Hooch asked Flint and Wood to shake hands, and Rose could practically feel their bones breaking from her spot in the stadium.

Madam Hooch started counting down and then blew her whistle. With a roar from the others in the crowd, the fourteen players rose toward the leaden sky. Harry flew higher than any of them, squinting around for the snitch.

Draco streaked underneath of Harry, probably showing off his speed, and almost immediately afterwards a Bludger went pelting towards Harry, and Rose could tell he very narrowly avoided the hit.

George went flying past Harry with his club in his hand, ready to knock the Bludger back toward a Slytherin. Rose saw George give the Bludger a powerful whack in the direction of Adrian Pucey, but the Bludger changed direction in midair and shot straight for Harry again.

Harry dropped quickly to avoid it, and George managed to hit it hard toward Draco. Once again, the Bludger swerved like a boomerang and shot at Harry's head.

Rose watched as Harry zoomed toward the other end of the pitch. She saw the Bludger closing in behind him. What was going on? Bludgers never concentrated on one player like this; it was their job to try and unseat as many people as possible...

Fred was waiting for the Bludger at the opposite end of the pitch. Harry ducked as Fred swung at the Bludger with all his might; the bludger was knocked off course.

But then it was back on course. The Bludger pelted after Harry once more, and Harry was forced to fly at full speed.

It had started to rain, and Rose knew Harry couldn't see a thing.

"Slytherin lead, sixty points to zero-"

The Slytherin's superior brooms were clearly doing their jobs, and meanwhile, the mad Bludger was doing all it could to knock Harry out of the air. Fred and George were now (thankfully) flying as close as they safely could on either side of Harry to deflect it.

She watched as George tried to signal Wood to call a timeout and stop the Bludger from breaking Harry's nose at the same time.

Wood had obviously gotten the message. Madam Hooch's whistle rang out and Harry, Fred, and George dove towards the ground, still trying to avoid the mad Bludger.

Rose tapped into Harry's mind so she could tell him what was going on, and he could pass it to Wood.

" _What's going on?" she heard Wood say as the Gryffindor team huddled together. "We're being flattened. Fred, George, where were you when that Bludger stopped Angelina scoring?"_

" _They were about twenty feet above her, stopping the other Bludger from murdering me, Oliver," Harry said. "Someone's fixed it, least Rose says so, and it won't leave me alone. It hasn't gone for anyone else all game. The Slytherins must have done something to it."_

 _Not Malfoy._ Rose offered.

Harry ignored her, and she kept listening into his conversation.

" _But the Bludgers have been locked in Madam Hooch's office since our last practice, and there was nothing wrong with the then…" Wood sounded anxious._

Then, Harry did something very stupid, and Rose screamed in his head for it.

" _Listen, with you two flying around me all the time the only way I'm going to catch the Snitch is if it flew up my sleeve. Go back to the rest of the team and let me deal with the rogue one."_

She could tell Fred and George were just as upset about this as she was.

" _Oliver, this is insane," said Alicia Spinnet angrily. "You can't let Harry deal with that thing on his own. Let's ask for an inquiry-"_

Rose left her brother's mind and stood to leave the game, knowing that her brother would appeal to Wood's insane obsession. When Hermione and Ron asked where she was going, she pointed to the castle. Neville decided to go with her.

"So, you're still being silent, right?" he asked, as they listened to the crowd going wild, indicating that the game was back in play.

Rose nodded, her chalkboard currently useless because of the rain anyways. She shivered and held it close to her as if it could give her warmth. Neville noticed.

"Hey, want my cloak? I mean, It's wet and all, but maybe it could keep you warm?" he offered.

Rose shook her head but smiled broadly at him, it was, after all, very sweet of him to offer.

Once they reached the castle, Neville cast a drying charm on her chalkboard and chalk, and she smiled again, writing on the board.

 _Thank you, Neville._

"You're welcome, Rose."

They walked to the common room in companionable silence. They heard the halls start filling with people and they sighed, knowing the silence was going to be broken.

"You know, Rose, I've been thinking… We umm… We used to study History of Magic together. And I know I said I didn't really want to this year, but I can't afford to get a bad grade on _that_ , too. So… Can I study with you?"

Rose felt elated. She nodded her head eagerly and Neville seemed to find something about her demeanor funny as he laughed. Rose looked at him questioningly.

"It's just funny that you and the twins are still refusing to talk. Maybe today you guys'll make up?"

Rose shook her head and smiled, taking her time in writing her response.

 _I won't stop until they do. And they're stubborn._

Neville laughed in agreement as people started flooding into the Common Room, cheering and saying things to each other about the match. Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thoman walked over and sat with Neville and Rose to catch them up on the happenings of the match.

"Ya shoulda seen it, Rose!" Seamus called excitedly as he sat down. "We won! But yer brother took this _hard_ hit from a bludger! Shot straight at Malfoy, he did, thought he was gonna pummel him meself, and caught the snitch! Fell right off his broom, and Lockhart tried to fix his arm," Rose groaned at this, but Seamus pushed on. "And he took the bones right out of his arm!"

"What?!" Neville exclaimed, glancing anxiously at Rose's suddenly very pale Rose got a wicked glint in her eye, and wrote something down, knowing she'd have all of their attention.

 _That means Skele-Gro._

Seamus and Neville winced in empathy for their friend, but Dean looked on in confusion, "What's Skele-Gro?"

"Skele-Gro," Neville began, happy to know something other people didn't, "is a potion that grows back your bones. Really useful, sure, but it feels like there are giant splinters filling up where the bone was and it hurts _really_ bad."

Dean nodded with wide eyes, finally saying, "Well, I don't envy Harry."

"Don't think any of us do," Seamus said knowingly.

Rose excused herself and went up to bed not too long after that. She contacted Harry long enough for him to apologize for being an idiot, and then she simply went to sleep, not caring about the party that was likely happening in the common room.

The news quickly spread around the school that Colin Creevey had been attacked and was now lying as though dead in the hospital wing. It was Monday morning (day nine, Rose noted) and the air was thick with rumor and suspicion. The first years were now moving around the castle in tight-knit groups, as though scared they would be attacked if they ventured forth alone.

Ginny, who sat next to Colin in Charms, was distraught. Fred and George went about comforting her the exact wrong way. They were taking turns covering themselves with fur or boils and jumping out at her from behind statues. They only stopped when Percy, apoplectic with rage, told them he was going to write to Mrs. Weasley and tell her Ginny was having nightmares.

Meanwhile, hidden from the teachers, a roaring trade in talismans, amulets, and other protective devices was sweeping the school. Neville bought a large, evil-smelling green onion, a pointed purple crystal, and a rotting newt tail before the other Gryffindor boys (under the guidance of Rose) pointed out that he was in no danger; he was a pure-blood, and therefore unlikely to be attacked.

"They went for Filch first," Neville said, his round face fearful. "And everyone knows I'm almost a Squib."

Soon enough, November had passed without any new developments. Rose and the twins felt their inner animals stirring now that they had the mandrake leaf out of their mouths, and they staged a very public, and very loud welcome back for their voices.

Rose and the twins were sitting in the Great Hall for lunch on Tuesday, December first, and they were sitting in their now normal arrangement, Fred and George across from Rose and Lee. Katie Bell often times sat next to one of the twins, but Rose happily noted that their silence had seemed to get to her.

The Weasley twins and Rose were staring intently at each other, and Lee was starting to get uncomfortable. He cleared his throat, and pulled at his collar a bit, "So, umm… Is there anything I should be informed about?"

He had expected them to reach for their chalkboards, but he was delightfully shocked when all three stood up and yelled, "I give!" at each other.

The Great Hall went silent as they watched the exchange. All three of their voices were raspy from lack of use, and they rubbed their throats simultaneously and suddenly glared at each other.

All three spoke in tandem, "Just because I'm talking to you doesn't mean you need to copy me!"

They all groaned, and they heard the sniggers around them, they glared around as if they hadn't planned any of this and called out in protest, "It's not funny that they're copying me! I'm my own person!" Then they gaped at each other groaning and sitting down, having apparently given up when they couldn't stop saying the same things as each other.

Slowly talking started to fill the room again, and they all knew that they had given a much-needed boost to the morale of the school. They smirked at each other and started chattering non-stop, trying to get their voices to return to their proper tones.

In the second week of December, Professor McGonagall came around, as usual, collecting names of those who would be staying at school for Christmas. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had signed her list as soon as they had seen it. Rose, however, struggled for a moment. She knew that she wanted to return home to her family, but she also knew that she couldn't leave her brother up to his own devices. McGonagall understood the girls plight, but she still told Rose she needed a decision. Rose eventually wrote her name down.

Rose also knew that Draco was staying at the castle too. Why he had decided to stay was, however, a mystery to her. She had just shrugged her curiosity off, though, and continued practicing for her animagus transformation with Fred and George. They had been becoming restless, knowing that they were so _close_ to being able to attempt partial transformation, but yet it felt as if it were ages away. Currently, they were trying to figure out nicknames for each other.

"Well… What are you, Rose?" Fred groused as he tried to brush Rose's hair, having finally gotten Lee to teach him he only needed to put it to practice now.

"Well, I'm- ow, Fred! Not that hard," ("Sorry, Rose," was Fred's muttered response) "a Black Jaguar. And _no_ I will _not_ be called Blacky. Her name's Misty, by the way," Rose said.

George hummed thoughtfully, "Well, I'm a Coyote. Had to look it up to figure it out, honestly."

"Wolf," Fred grunted, trying to maneuver his way through a knot that was particularly hard to get out.

"Well, yours is easy at least," Rose aimed at Fred. "You could be Paws."

George nodded his head and smiled, "And if he goes with Paws I could be something like Claws. You know, so we're still similar."

Rose smirked, "Oh, so worried about being separated from your twin, dearest George?"

George blushed and muttered something under his breath, making Rose laugh. She loved it when the twins got flustered, _especially_ when she caused it.

"But that doesn't answer what my name'll be, does it?" Rose inquired.

"No, it doesn't," Fred sighed, finally getting through the troublesome knot, "But we don't have time to get concerned about that, we need to get you to potions or Snape'll have your head."

They walked to the Potions lab in the dungeons. Rose had honestly forgotten all about the fact that Thursday afternoons were for potions, so she did her hair nimbly as they walked to the classroom, braiding it so she could be sure that it would be out of her face.

"Still partners with Malfoy?" Fred asked, fascinated by how her fingers were flying through her hair.

"Yeah, I think we're the best pair in the class, honestly. And it's not like we work together _every_ time, but most of the time we do."

Rose wrapped the hair tie around her hair as she finished the braid and Fred and George couldn't tear their eyes away from the task.

"How do girls manage?" George whispered conspiratorially to Fred.

"I've got no clue, mate. I think they're magic," Fred said in awe.

"Well, I am a witch," Rose said with a smirk.

The twins laughed and dropped her off at potions, none of them knowing about the chaos that would ensue in the classroom.

Potions took place in one of the large dungeons. Twenty cauldrons stood steaming between the wooden desks, on which stood brass scales and jars of ingredients. Snape prowled through the fumes, making waspish remarks about the Gryffindors' work while the Slytherins sniggered appreciatively. Draco, who was Snape's favorite, kept flicking puffer-fish eyes at Ron and Harry. He only stopped when Rose swatted his arm.

Rose's Swelling Solution was perfect, as was Draco's and she had whispered instructions to Draco about how to help Crabbe and Goyle with their potion work when suddenly Goyle's potion exploded, and showered the whole class. Rose had screamed when she saw the explosion and Draco was in front of her in a second, getting a faceful as his nose began to swell like a balloon; Goyle blundered around, his hands over his eyes, which had expanded to the size of a dinner plate- Snape was trying to restore calm and find out what had happened.

"Silence! SILENCE!" Snape roared. "Anyone who has been splashed, come here for a Deflating Draft- when I find out who did this-"

Rose noticed that Harry was trying not to laugh at Draco as he went forward, his head drooping with the weight of a nose that looked to be the size of a small melon. As half of the class lumbered up to Snape's desk, some weighted down with arms like clubs, others unable to talk through gigantic puffed up lips Rose kept her eyes on Harry, who seemed very interested in the table in front of him once he noticed his twins hard stare.

When everyone had taken a swig of antidote and the various swellings had subsided, Snape swept over to Goyle's cauldron and scooped out the twisted black remains of the firework. There was a sudden hush and Rose felt sick to her stomach. Surely this hadn't been Harry's doing?

"If I ever find out who threw this," Snape whispered, "I shall _make sure_ that person is expelled."

And for once, Rose fully agreed with the punishment that Snape had thought of.

As the bell rang ten minutes later, Rose gently placed her hand on Draco's arm, knowing that everyone would be too busy scurrying out to take notice of how close they suddenly were.

"Draco…? Are you okay?" Rose murmured, removing her hand and packing up.

"Yeah. A bit embarrassed, but Uncle Sev fixed everything right up," Draco muttered in response.

"Is your neck okay?" she reached out a tentative hand and massaged the back of his neck, feeling his tenseness.

What she hadn't expected, was for him to suddenly turn and hug her tightly. Rose blushed and shyly hugged him back she could feel him shuddering for a second, before muttering against her shoulder, "I'm fine as long as you didn't get hurt, Rosie."

This had Rose's face feeling like it was on fire and she tightened her grip on him for a moment before releasing him, knowing they were still in Snape's classroom.

"I'm glad you're okay, Draco."

Draco nodded as they grabbed their things and walked out, leaving a thoughtful and perplexed potions master in their wake.


	9. Chapter 9

A week later, Lee, Fred, Rose, and George were walking across the entrance hall when they saw a small knot of people gathered around the notice board, reading a piece of parchment that had just been pinned up. Neville Longbottom beckoned Rose over and she walked over, letting the others follow her.

"They're starting a Dueling Club!" said Neville. "First meeting tonight! I wouldn't mind dueling lessons; they might come in handy one of these days…"

"What, you reckon Slytherin's monster can duel?" Lee said, but he, too, read the sign with interest.

"It could be useful," he said to the Weasley twins and Rose as they went into dinner. "Should we go?"

The twins were all for it, exclaiming that there would be chaos that night, so at eight o'clock that evening, they hurried back to the Great Hall. The long dining tables had vanished and a golden stage had appeared along one wall, lit by thousands of candles floating overhead. The ceiling was velvety black once more and most of the school seemed to be packed beneath it, all carrying their wands and looking excited.

"I wonder who'll be teaching us?" said Rose as they edged into the chattering crowd.

"Someone told me Flitwick was a dueling champion when he was young- maybe it'll be him," George offered, hoping it was his favorite professor.

"As long as it's not-" Fred began, but he ended on a groan: Gilderoy Lockhart was walking onto the stage resplendent in robes of deep plum and accompanied by none other than Snape, wearing his usual black.

Lockhart waved an arm for silence and called, "Gather round gather round! Can everyone see me?" ("Hard not to see an eyesore like that," groused George.) "Can you all Hear me?" ("I wish I didn't have to," muttered both of the twins.) "Excellent!

"Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions- for full details, see my published works.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," said Lockhart, flashing a wide smile. "He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters," there was an exclamation of disbelief in the older students, "to worry- you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!"

"Wouldn't it be good if they finished each other off?" Lee muttered into Rose's ear, and she stifled a giggle.

Snape's upper lip was curling. Rose absently wondered why Lockhart was still smiling; if Snape had been looking at _her_ like that she'd have been running as fast as she could in the opposite direction.

Lockhart and Snape turned to face each other and bowed; at least, Lockhart did, with much twirling of his hands, whereas Snape jerked his head irritably. Then they raised their wands like swords in front of them.

"As you see, we are holding out wands in the accepted combative position," Lockhart told the silent crowd. "On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."

"I wouldn't bet on that," muttered Rose, watching Snape baring his teeth.

"One- two- three-"

Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent; Snape cried: " _Expelliarmus!_ " There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet: he flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall, and slid down it to sprawl on the floor.

Draco and some of the other Slytherins cheered, and Rose wished she could join them.

"Hope he gets a concussion," the twins muttered together.

Lockhart got unsteadily to his feet. His hat had fallen off and his wavy hair was standing on end.

"Well, there you have it!" he said, tottering back onto the platform. "That was a Disarming Charm- as you see, I've lost my wand- ah, thank you, Miss Brown- yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind me saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy- however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see…"

Snape was looking murderous. Possible Lockhart had noticed, because he said, "Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me-"

They moved through the crowd, matching up partners. Lockhart teamed Neville with Justin Finch-Fletchley, but Snape reached Harry and Ron before Lockhart could. He paired Ron with Seamus, Harry with Blaize Zabini, and Hermione with Millicent Bullstrode.

He then approached Rose, and the twins almost formed a protective barrier around her but she pushed them away.

"Mr. Malfoy, come over here. Let's see what you make of one of the famous Potter's," he was smiling coldly, but Rose sensed no malice behind the smile.

Rose shrugged her shoulder and paired up against Malfoy, a very small smile on her face. He had strutted over, smirking.

"Face your partner's!" called Lockhart, back on the platform. "And bow!"

Rose and Malfoy barely inclined their heads, not taking their eyes off each other, both having been raised better than that.

' _Never_ , and I mean _never_ , take your eyes off of your opponent, Rose' was the exact thing that Sirius had always told her, and she listened.

"Wands at the ready!" shouted Lockhart. "When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponents- _only_ to disarm them- we don't want any accidents- one… two… three-"

Rose and Draco simultaneously swung their wands high and cast the disarming spell at each other. They dodged out of each other's first attempts, and then moved forward, each attack at the other person getting harder and more forceful. Rose was sure that she heard Lockhart shouting something at one point, but she was so focused on the task of disarming the boy in front of her that it didn't occur to her that it could be something important.

Soon, the whole hall was staring at the duel that was happening between Draco Malfoy and Rose Potter. The disarming spell was flying around them, and each time it was cast it was getting closer and closer to the target. Finally, with their last cry of " _Expelliarmus!_ " Both of their wands went flying through the air. They grabbed each other's wands and looked at each other before breaking into small smiles, or in Draco's case a smirk.

"Well done, _Potter_ ," Draco said, having noted that everyone was staring at them.

"Yeah, I guess you did okay too, Malfoy," Rose said handing his wand over as she was handed hers.

Finally, Lockhart broke the silence, "I think I'd better teach you all how to _block_ unfriendly spells," said Lockhart, standing flustered in the midst of the hall. He glanced at Snape, whose black eyes glinted, and looked quickly away. "Let's have a volunteer pair- Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, how about you-"

"A bad idea, Professor Lockhart," said Snape, gliding over like a large and malevolent bat. "Longbottom causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending what's left of Finch-Fletchley up to the hospital wing in a matchbox." Neville's round, pink face went pinker. "How about Malfoy and Miss Potter?" said Snape with a twisted smile.

"Excellent idea!" said Lockhart, gesturing Rose and Harry into the middle of the hall as the crowd backed away to give them the room.

"Now, Rose," said Lockhart. "When Draco points his wand at you, you do _this_."

Rose wasn't even pretending to pay attention, she was just slipping away from Lockhart, who had placed his hand on her shoulder. Snape moved closer to Malfoy, bent down, and whispered something in his ear. Malfoy smirked, too.

Rose groaned quietly. _Great_ , she thought, _not only do I have the incompetent professor, but I'm going up against a Slytherin as well._

Lockhart cuffed Rose merrily on the shoulder. "Just do what I did, Rose!"

"What, drop my wand?" she muttered.

But Lockhart wasn't listening.

"Three- two- one- go!"

He shouted.

Malfoy and Rose quickly started attacking each other with spell after spell, some barely missing and others barely hitting.

Rose had hit Malfoy with a Rictusempra, which made him double over wheezing and she couldn't help the little giggle that escaped her at her friend's situation. She, however, did not make the mistake of doing nothing. She constructed a shield around her, and this seemed to be what Draco was waiting for.

" _Tarantallegra!"_ he cast at her at what she thought was a peculiar angle, until the spell bounced from her shield and raced towards Lockhart, who was suddenly being jerked around in a quick step. She laughed and looked at Draco before they both got serious again.

"Scared yet, Malfoy?" she called, and he scoffed back at her.

"You wish!"

Then Malfoy quickly raised his wand and bellowed, " _Serpensortia!_ "

The end of his wand exploded. Rose watched, aghast, as a long black snake shot out of it, fell heavily onto the floor between them, and raised itself, ready to strike. There were screams as the crowd backed swiftly away, clearing the floor.

"Don't move, Potter," said Snape lazily. "I'll get rid of it…"

"Allow me!" shouted Lockhart, who had finally gained control of his legs. He brandished his wand at the snake and there was a loud bang; the snake, instead of vanishing, flew ten feet into the air and fell back to the floor with a loud smack. Enraged, hissing furiously, it slithered straight toward Justin Finch-Fletchley and raised itself again, fangs exposed, poised to strike.

Rose watched with gigantic eyes as Harry jumped in front of Justin and yelled, "Leave him alone!" and miraculously- inexplicably- the snake slumped to the floor, docile as a thick, black garden hose its eyes now on Harry. Rose felt the fear drain out of her, she knew the snake wouldn't attack anyone now.

She glanced at Justin, grinning a small smile, expecting to see Justin looking relieved, puzzled, or even grateful- but certainly not angry and scared.

"What do you think you're playing at?" he shouted at Harry, and before anyone could say anything, Justin had turned and stormed out of the hall.

Snape stepped forward, waved his wand, and the snake vanished in a small puff of black smoke. Snape, too, was looking at Harry in an unexpected way: it was shrewd and calculating. She was dimly aware of an ominous muttering all around the walls. She then watched as Ron steered him out of the hall, with Hermione hurrying alongside them.

It seemed that her duel had finished, and Draco was now by her side, whispering in her ear, "You didn't say your brother was a _Parselmouth_."

Rose blinked at him and her eyes went huge, "I didn't know we were…"

"You are too?!" Draco whispered harshly.

"Look, I didn't know until _today_. I didn't even know he was speaking another language. I heard what he said, I know that he told the snake to leave Justin alone. I… Draco, I need to go."

She knew she had the eyes of the whole hall on her as she walked out, but she was soon joined by the Weasley twins.

"You didn't tell us-" they both started but she just moved faster until eventually all three of them were panting from running all the way to the common room. They walked in with Harry in an armchair, and Ron standing in front of him glaring at the entrance in case anyone else was coming in.

"It's us. No need to panic," Rose muttered as she climbed onto her brother's lap. "We're parselmouths!"

"Yeah, apparently I- wait you are too?" Harry questioned.

Rose nodded her head, "Yeah, I heard you clear as day when you told the Snake to leave Justin alone."

"Oh, so that's what he said to it?"

Rose glared at Ron for his tactlessness, "Look, Harry, it'll be okay. The only issue is that everyone's going to assume you're the heir of Slytherin now."

Harry groaned and shook his head. They heard noise and they all scattered to their dorm rooms.

Rose lay awake for hours that night. Through a gap in her curtains, she watched snow starting to drift past the tower window and wondered…

 _Could_ they be descendants of Salazar Slytherin? She knew almost her whole family on her father's side had been Gryffindors but perhaps there was a long kept secret that their father had never told?

Quietly, Rose tried to say something in Parseltongue. The words wouldn't come. Maybe she couldn't speak it, maybe she could only understand it.

 _But I'm in_ _ **Gryffindor**_ _,_ Rose thought. _The Sorting Hat wouldn't have put me here if I had Slytherin blood…_

 _Ah,_ said a nasty little voice in her brain, _but the Sorting Hat_ _ **wanted**_ _to put you in Slytherin, don't you remember?_

Rose rolled over. They'd see Justin the next day in Herbology, and perhaps with her assistance Harry could explain that he was calling the snake off, not egging it on, which any idiot should've been able to realize.

By the next morning, however, the snow that had begun in the night had turned into a blizzard so thick that the last Herbology lesson of the term was canceled: Professor Sprout wanted to fit socks and scarves on the Mandrakes, a tricky operation she would entrust to no one else, now that it was so important for the Mandrakes to grow quickly and revive Mrs. Norris and Colin Creevey.

Rose was curled up with Fred and George on Lee's bed while Lee himself sat at the food of the bed. They were all silent for once, and they didn't know what to say to each other. Rose sighed and finally sat up, fiddling with her hair. "Well, I mean, the map is coming along well."

The twins and Lee nodded. The map wasn't even remotely close to being done, but it was looking fairly good so well. They were adding spell after spell after spell to it, and they had even managed to get every single person in the castle's name onto the map, but currently they wandered around listlessly, not caring where they went or where the person who they were supposed to represent was going.

"Yeah, maybe we should work on it a bit more?" Lee offered.

"Yeah, it might distract us," the twins agreed, also sitting up.

However, Rose was soon contacted by her brother, she listened to his panicking voice before she excused herself and raced from the common room to Professor Dumbledore's office she caught her breath in front of the ugly stone gargoyle.

"Lemon drop!" she said, and the Gargoyle stepped aside as the wall behind him split in two. Even full of dread for what was happening in the room above she stepped onto the stairs that smoothly moved upwards. She stepped off the stone staircase at the top and walked through the already open door. She walked up to Harry, and they both watched a decrepit-looking bird that resembled a half-plucked turkey. The bird made a gagging noise, and the twins thought it looked very ill. Its eyes were dull and even as they watched a couple more feathers fell out of its tail.

They yelled in shock and backed away into the desk. Rose realized it was a phoenix, but Harry was looking around for something to douse the water with. The phoenix gave one loud shriek and the next second there was nothing but a smoldering pile of ash on the floor.

The office door opened. Dumbledore came in, looking very somber.

"Professor," Harry gasped. "Your bird- I couldn't do anything- he just caught fire-"

Dumbledore smiled.

"About time, too," he said. "He's been looking dreadful for days; I've been telling him to get a move on."

He chuckled at the stunned look on Harry's face.

"Fawkes is a phoenix, Harry. Phoenixes burst into flame when it is time for them to die and are reborn from the ashes. Watch him…"

Rose looked down in time to see a tiny, wrinkled, newborn bird poke its head out of the ashes. It was quite as ugly as the old one.

"It's a shame you had to see him on a Burning Day," said Dumbledore, seating himself behind his desk. "He's really very handsome most of the time, wonderful red and gold plumage. Fascinating creatures, phoenixes. They can carry immensely heavy loads, their tears have healing powers, and they make highly _faithful_ pets."

Dumbledore settled himself in the high chair behind the desk and fixed Rose with his penetrating, light-blue stare.

"Miss Potter, what are you doing here? Surely you are not in the same predicament as your twin?"

Rose shrugged her shoulders and sighed, "I'm here to tell you he didn't do it."

Before Dumbledore could speak another word, however, the door of the office flew open with an almighty bang and Hagrid burst in, a wild look in his eyes, his balaclava perched on top of his shaggy black head and a dead rooster swinging from his hand.

"It wasn' Harry, Professor Dumbledore!" said Hagrid urgently. "I was talkin' ter him _seconds_ before that kid was found, he never had time, sir-"

Dumbledore tried to say something, but Hagrid went ranting on, waving the rooster around in his agitation, sending feathers everywhere.

"-it can't've bin him, I'll swear it in front o' the Ministry o' Magic if I have to-"

"Hagrid, I-"

"-yeh've got the wrong boy, sir, I _know_ Harry never-"

" _Hagrid!_ " said Dumbledore loudly. "I do _not_ think that Harry attacked those people."

"Oh," said Hagrid, the rooster falling limply at his side. "Right. I'll wait outside then, Headmaster."

And he stomped out looking embarrassed.

"You don't think it was me, Professor?" Harry repeated hopefully as Dumbledore brushed rooster feathers off of his desk.

"No, Harry, I don't," said Dumbledore, though his face was somber again. "So it was unnecessary to call on your sister to defend you. But I still want to talk to you."

Rose watched as Harry fidgeted under the calm gaze of the headmaster, who was considering him from over the tips of his long fingers that were steepled together.

"I must ask you, Harry, whether there is anything you'd like to tell me," he said gently. "Anything at all."

After a moment of silence Rose almost sighed in relief when Harry said, "No. There isn't anything, Professor."


	10. Chapter 10

The double attack on Justin and Nearly Headless Nick turned what had hitherto been nervousness into a real panic. Curiously, it was Nearly Headless Nick's fate that seemed to worry people most. What could possibly do that to a ghost? people asked each other; what terrible power could harm someone who was already dead? There was almost a stampede to book seats on the Hogwarts Express so that students could go home for Christmas.

Rose knew that the Weasley's, Hermione and Harry would be the only Gryffindor's remaining, and she also knew that Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, and Theodore Nott were the only Slytherin's staying. She understood Crabbe and Goyle's reason for staying; they always did anything Draco did. However, Draco's and Nott's motives still escaped her.

In honesty, she was glad that most people were leaving. She had been skirted around far too many times in the past week, and she was honestly sick of it. She knew Harry had it worse, she had witnessed the looked people gave him in the corridor, all the muttering, pointing, and hissing that was occurring would be maddening to her twin brother.

Fred and George, however, found this all maddeningly funny. They went out of their way to march ahead of Harry down the corridors, shouting, "Make way for the Heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through…."

Percy and Rose were deeply disapproving of this behavior.

"It is _not_ a laughing matter," he said coldly.

"Oh, get out of the way, Percy," said Fred. "Harry's in a hurry."

"Yeah, he's off to the Chamber of Secrets for a cup of tea with his fanged servant," said George, chortling.

Ginny didn't find it amusing either.

"Oh, _don't_ ," she wailed every time Fred asked Harry loudly who he was planning to attack next, or when George pretended to ward Harry off with a large clove of garlic when they met.

She knew Harry didn't mind, and she noticed that the Weasley twins antics were having an effect on Draco and Nott too. She hummed thoughtfully, knowing Draco was bothered that someone was still able to have fun in this situation, but she had no idea why Nott was getting into a tizzy.

At last, the term ended, and a silence deep as the snow on the grounds descended on the castle. Rose found it peaceful, but rather gloomy, but she enjoyed that her friends had the run of Gryffindor Tower; which meant they could play Exploding Snap loudly without bothering anyone, and practice dueling in private. Rose already knew her fair share about dueling, so she often times didn't participate in those activities, instead focusing on transforming herself into her inner animal. So far, all she had accomplished was turning her normally red hair a few shades darker.

Christmas eve found Fred, George, Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Rose all making forts and snacks, laughing as they told stories about what had happened to them on Christmases past. They joked around and, as tradition said they would, asked each other personal (and sometimes not so personal) questions. They were all excited for Christmas to finally be here, but Rose knew that something else was going on with Ron, Harry, and Hermione. She wanted to question Hermione, knowing she was most likely to tell her the truth, but she didn't find time as she fell asleep in the heap that was all of them.

Christmas morning dawned, cold and white. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had disappeared before Rose and the twins woke up and they frowned at each other in confusion before shrugging and opening their presents.

Hagrid had sent her a large tin of treacle fudge, which she discovered was identical to the gift he gave Harry when she found his tin softening up by the fire. Ron had gotten her some Bernie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and she shrugged her shoulder's, smiling ever so slightly about that. Hermione had gotten her a luxury falcon-feather quill. Fred and George had gone in together and gotten her three new charms for her bracelet. One was a Jaguar, one was a Coyote, and one was a wolf. She smiled and eagerly launched herself at them as thanks, before asking them for assistance putting them onto her bracelet.

Percy had gotten her a book called _Basic Hexes For The Busy and Vexed_ which had made her laugh. Charlie had gotten her _Book of Potions_ by Zygmunt Budge and she hummed thoughtfully as she pursued the pages for a moment. Ginny had gotten her some hair care potions made specifically for red-heads like them and she smiled at the thoughtfulness of her friend. The last present she received from a Weasley was a hand-knitted sweater from Mrs. Weasley and a large plum cake.

Harry had gotten her a case of Butterbeer that she was now hoarding and hiding away from Fred and George. Sirius had gotten her something that she didn't think she would ever forget.

She had opened his letter first and read slowly.

 _Cubette,_

 _I believe it's time to give this to you. Your mother used to wear it daily, and I believe you'll appreciate it too._

 _-You're Dogfather_

Rose eagerly opened the small package and went wide eyed at what was inside. A ring that she had indeed noticed in every picture of her mother sat in front of her. The simple silver band still glistened as if brand new, and the miniature lily that came out of it felt soft and fragile, almost as if it were alive. She slipped the ring onto her pointer finger of her right hand and suddenly felt more in tune with her birth parents than she had ever dreamed of being.

Remus's gift, in turn, made her miss her family immensely.

 _Cubette,_

 _My gift to you this year, is one of the few things that I have held onto of my mothers. Perhaps it is the time that you inherited it._

 _-Uncle Moony_

The gift, once unwrapped, revealed itself to be Remus's mother's cookbook. Rose's eyes filled with tears for a moment before she held it close, promising mentally to cherish it always, and perhaps even start filling more pages.

Finally, Rose opened her last gift, which was from Victoria.

 _Rose,_

 _This is a gift from Sarah and me. She had originally decided that she needed to get you a present and wouldn't rest until she found one perfect for you, but I convinced her that perhaps as she had only met you once she should just go in on a present with me. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy!_

 _-Victoria_

Rose opened it, very curious now and she raised a single eyebrow (not realizing that the motion was one she had seen Snape do many times) and opened the gift. Rose wasn't all that surprised when she saw loads of makeup inside the box. She had noticed that Lavender and Parvati were starting to wear makeup, and she was sure that it was considered normal for girls her age to start wearing it. She shrugged and set the box to the side, not really interested in makeup yet. As soon as the box was out of her lap she was being tackled by the excitable Weasley twins.

"What's that for?" she asked looking at them in confusion.

"We didn't get a present from you-" George started.

"Which means-" Fred continued.

"That you got us something really special!" they crowed together.

Rose blinked and smiled slightly, "Yeah, I suppose I did. I got all of you Weasley's 'something special' but I suppose yours would be considered the most special," Rose pushed them off of her and stretched for a moment, missing their glance at each other, and put a finger to her chin as if thinking. "Let's see. I got Percy a present that no one can know about," that easily got even more of the twins attention on her, "I got Ginny a Snitch to play with. I got Charlie a book about how _not_ to become Dragon food. I got Bill a curse-breaking guide. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley will surely yell at me for my gift to them soon enough, but _what_ did I get for you two?"

The twins were practically bouncing as they stared at her, knowing that this was going to be good.

"Well… Oh, yes! It was based off of something Malfoy said," this had alarm bells going off in their head, but they pushed them aside as they often did, "and I thought you'd really appreciate it…"

"Just spit it out!" they both yelled.

Rose laughed and smiled at the two impatient boys, "Fine, fine," going underneath the tree again, Rose came out with two long boxes and handed one to each of them.

The wrapping paper was being torn off of the boxes almost before they were out of her hands. The twins looked at each other and peaked under the lids before slamming them shut and staring at each other with wide eyes. Slowly they opened the boxes again before throwing the lids off and staring at what lay inside absolutely mesmerized.  
"She didn't, did she?" Fred asked dazedly.

"I think she might have," came George's equally dazed answer.

Slowly, and reverently, they pulled their brand new Nimbs 2000's out of the boxes. They stared in fascination at the Nimbus 2000 logo on the handle, and they seemed to swoon when they saw their names in the gold lettering too.

"I think I'm in love," Fred said with a hand on his heart.

"I love her more!" George said as he tackled Rose with a gigantic hug and practically squeezed the life out of Rose. Then when he released her Rose took a deep breath, thinking she had a moment to recover. She was wrong, though, and was soon being smothered by Fred too.

Rose finally laughed and got out of his grip, running to her dorm room so she could change.

Rose slipped on her Weasley sweater and smiled broadly as she slipped on a pair of jeans. Taking a quick trip into her room in her trunk Rose grabbed a pair of shoes (thankfully not her school shoes) and put on her trainers. Making her way back out of the room Rose contemplated putting her hair up but she decided it was pointless for right now. She walked down to the common room where Fred and George were obviously waiting for her.

The rest of the day was spent laughing and gallivanting through the castle and on the snow filled grounds. They created Igloo's (sort of, if you touched one the wrong way they collapsed) and had snowball fights. They laughed and played, talked to Hagrid for a bit, and even got some of their work for school done.

And of course, no one could fail to enjoy Christmas dinner at Hogwarts.

The Great Hall looked magnificent. Not only were there a dozen frost-covered Christmas trees and thick streamers of holly and mistletoe crisscrossing the ceiling, and enchanted snow was falling, warm and dry, from the ceiling. Dumbledore led them in a few of his favorite carols, Hagrid booming more and more loudly with every goblet of eggnog he consumed. Percy, who thankfully hadn't noticed that Fred had bewitched his prefect badge so that it now read "Pin-head," kept asking them all what they were sniggering at. Rose didn't even care about Theodore Nott's loud, snide remarks about their new sweaters from the Slytherin table.

Rose ignored it when Hermione, Ron, and Harry left the Great Hall, and just continued having a good time with the twins until she felt a presence behind her. Looking around in confusion she saw Draco standing behind her. She smiled slightly, "Yes, Draco?"

"I wanted to talk about the possibility of dueling with you more. You seemed to not be totally incompetent," he said smoothly, knowing that others were listening to their conversation.

Rose nodded and excused herself from the table, as they walked away Draco couldn't help but smirk and call to Percy as he walked away from him, "Nice badge, Weasley."

There was a commotion behind them and they laughed as they walked out of the Great Hall.

"What did you get me this year?" Rose asked, her face shining with excitement as soon as the doors were shut.

"Hold your hippogriffs, Rose. Just give me a moment," Draco said, pulling something from his robes pocket at the same time that Rose did.

"On the count of three?" Rose asked as they exchanged gifts.

Draco nodded, "Three," he drawled.

"Two!" Rose said.

"One!" they said together as they tore the wrapping paper and opened the gifts.

Rose looked at the little keychain and at first recognized that it was the symbol of Gryffindor. But then she looked closer, and saw that instead of Gryffindor, it read Gryffinclaw, and the lion had wings and eagle feet. She blushed, knowing Draco had put a lot of thought into this gift, and he had spent a fair penny on it too.

She then looked up and saw Draco looking at the snitch in his hands in confusion. It's wings fluttered helplessly, wanting to fly away but only able to hover. He looked over at Rose for an answer, and Rose laughed.

"It's not a real snitch, Draco. It's a pocket watch. See, you touch here," she motioned to a little device on the top of the snitch, "and it'll open up and show you the time. You can even ask it what time it is, and it'll just tell you!" Rose was smiling broadly as she watched Draco slowly start to smile.

"That's brilliant, Rose! Thank you!" he said as he pulled her into a hug.

"No problem! Thank you so much for the keychain, it looks lovely."

Draco blushed a bit, "It needed to look as lovely as you do."

Now it was Rose's turn to blush, although hers was much more red than the light pink that Draco had turned.

They hugged each other once more before going their separate ways to their own common rooms.

As soon as Rose had gotten to her dorm room she had attached the keychain to her bag and she smiled, her eyes gaining a soft quality. She had truly been touched by Draco's thoughtfulness, and she somehow knew that this wouldn't be the last time.

She walked down to the common room, a huge smile on her face.

"Oi, George, look at that. It's a beautiful Rose," Fred said with a smirk as she approached them. Rose blushed, still very unused to being flirted with.

"It'd be a shame if someone were to… pick her," George said before getting up and picking her up swinging her around. She squealed and grabbed onto him.

"George! Put me down!" Rose yelled, hitting him unashamedly.

He laughed and put her down, kissing her cheek, "All you had to do was ask."

Rose rolled her eyes and sat in between the two of them, humming happily, they immediately took notice of her elated mood.

"So, what happened with Malfoy?" George questioned.

"Yeah, we noticed he hadn't given you any gift or anything," Fred muttered.

"Oh, we exchanged presents. It's easier that way, no one questions us. He knows that I don't like being alone on holidays or anything."

They nodded and dropped it. Although they still didn't really approve of her being friends with Malfoy they weren't going to tell her she couldn't be friends with him; it wasn't as if she was theirs. Even if she were theirs they wouldn't try to control her. She was, after all, her own person.

They played exploding snap for awhile, George beating them unashamedly. Rose was about to start pouting when Harry and Ron came in a bit pale. Rose frowned and stood, quickly attempting to access her twins mind.

Harry blocked her out and sighed, "Hermione's in the hospital wing. No," he commented quickly, noting their fear, "she wasn't petrified. She… Something else happened."

Rose glared at him and started advancing on the two, who quickly retreated until their backs hit the wall, "You didn't make that _stupid_ potion, did you?"

They were silent and Rose practically grew with her rage, "How _could_ you?! You're already _so_ close to expulsion, how could you _do_ this? I hope your _precious_ information was worth your educations!"

With that she stormed into her dorm room, knowing that it was unfair to leave the twins, but she also knew that they would understand.

Rose sat down on her bed and frowned, needing to do _something_ but unsure of what to do. She knew if she attempted her animagus transformation she'd get stuck (this was thanks to a little note that Sirius had made in the manual of how to make the transformation) and Rose realized that she had never written anything down before. She'd never written out her life, and she decided that today would be the day to try.

Rose grabbed the journal that Remus had given her exactly a year ago and flipped to the first page. She grabbed a quill and inkwell and thought herself foolish for a moment before shaking it off and starting to write.

 _December 25th, 1992_

 _Dear diary/journal/thing,_

 _Hello there! I'm Rose Potter. You've obviously never heard of me, you've never heard of anyone that I haven't mentioned, and this is the first time that I've even written in you. It's been a year since I received you as a gift from Remus, so I suppose I've been neglecting you._

Rose paused and looked at the parchment in front of her. Perhaps writing things out wasn't as helpful as she had thought it would be. She felt incredibly awkward, and that was with a _book_ for Merlin's sake! Rose would not be deterred, though, and she dipped her quill in ink again before continuing to write.

 _I was told that I should write down everything that happens in here. But, on the account that you may fall into the wrong hands, I don't think I will. I will, however, tell you some facts._

 _I'm Rose Potter. The-girl-who-lived, twin sister of Harry Potter (look, you've learned another name!), and a resident of Gryffindor house. I'm best friends with the Weasley twins and I feel like I'm a part of the Weasley family, and I'm pretty sure they feel the same._

 _I grew up without my mother and father (Lily and James Potter) because they were killed in front of Harry and I by an evil man who calls himself Lord Voldemort. I hardly believe that he's a lord, but I digress. They both died protecting Harry and I, and sometimes I feel guilty about it. Sometimes I doubt that I was worth it._

 _Lord Voldemort has shaped my life and in terrible ways. He killed my parents, and attempted to kill Harry and I. He created a following, called Death Eaters, and they make my godfather, Sirius, life hell, even if they have stopped being active. They also shaped another friend of mine's life. Who is this other friend? you may ask, but I won't tell you, for his safety and mine._

 _And I guess, that's where my story began, Diary. I am known by every wizarding family in Britain. I am a hero in some, a menace in others. I am, well… I don't know what I am. I think that I wish I had just gotten a chance to be Rose Potter the girl, not Rose Potter the-girl-who-lived. I wish I had gotten a chance to be who I wanted to be, not who I was expected to be. I wish my brother didn't have a reason to be protective of me, I wish that I could go home on the Holidays to play with my little siblings. I wish I had a chance to be more than I am now, but somehow I know I would also be less. I know from my mother's journals that my father could be arrogant, so I am glad that I didn't have a chance to pick up on that trait. Sort of._

 _There, I've started writing about my life. Perhaps I'll continue on a later date, but I need sleep._

 _Goodnight, diary/journal/thing._

Rose put the diary in her nightstand and yawned as she put on pajamas. She really was tired, and Maple purring contentedly next to her while she had been writing wasn't helping at all either. She slipped into her bed, only disturbing Maple enough so she 'decided' to move to avoid further pestering. Rose slowly fell asleep, happy that she had had a good Christmas, but still livid at her brother and his friends.


	11. Chapter 11

Hermione remained in the hospital wing for several weeks. There was a flurry of rumor about her disappearance when the rest of the school arrived back from their Christmas holidays because of course everyone thought that she had been attacked. So many students filed past the hospital wing trying to catch a glimpse of her that Madam Pomfrey took out her curtains again and placed them around Hermione's bed, to spare her the shame of being seen with a furry face.

Harry and Ron visited her each evening, and when term started they brought her each day's homework. Often times, though, they had to borrow Rose's notes because they never took their own notes.

Meanwhile, Rose and the Weasley twins were very busy. They were working very hard and seemed incapable of making any progress on their transformations. They could change very small facets about themselves; for instance, George turned his hair a grayish brown, Fred managed to make his fingernails get longer, and Rose was still stuck on her hair turning darker. They didn't understand where they were going wrong, but when Rose checked all of the materials they could find they all said they were actually doing really well, no matter _how_ frustrating it was.

Hermione left the hospital wing, de-whiskered, tail-less, and fur-free, at the beginning of February. On her first evening back Rose approached her, Harry, and Ron to find them crowded around a blank book.

"Ummm… That parchment looks like it's at least fifty years old, so I'm going to assume it isn't any of yours. What is it?" Rose questioned.

"It's the diary of T. M. Riddle. It's completely blank, the revealer didn't work, and the ink isn't invisible. But yet, someone tried to get rid of it. Any idea of what it could be?" Harry asked.

Rose made a noncommittal noise in the back of her throat and stared at the diary. She didn't think that anyone would get rid of a truly blank diary, so it was probably heavily warded. And perhaps T. M. Riddle wasn't even the person's real name, they just came up with it when they had detention and put it on the diary to throw people off of the scent. She said as much to Harry, but he just shook his head, determined that there had to be more.

Soon enough the sun was beginning to shine weakly on Hogwarts again. Inside the castle, the mood had grown more hopeful. There had been no more attacks since those on Justin and Nearly Headless Nick, and Professor Sprout was pleased to report that the Mandrakes were becoming moody and secretive, meaning they were fast leaving childhood.

"The moment their acne clears up, they'll be ready for repotting again," Rose heard her telling Flich kindly one afternoon. "And after that, it won't be long until we're cutting them up and stewing them. You'll have Mrs. Norris back in no time."

Life for Harry hadn't been getting any better, though, even with the attacks stopping. Many people think that they had only stopped because he had given himself away at the Dueling club, and Peeves was happy to sing many songs about how terrible he was.

Gilderoy Lockhart seemed to think that he had made the attacks stop. Rose overheard him telling Professor McGonagall so while the Gryffindors were lining up for Transfiguration.

"I don't think they'll be any more trouble, Minerva," he said, tapping his nose knowingly and winking. "I think the Chamber of Secrets has been locked for good this time. The culprit must have known it was only a matter of time before I caught him. Rather sensible to stop now, before I came down hard on him.

"You know, what the school needs now is a morale-booster. Wash away the memories of the last term! I won't say any more just now, but I think I know just the thing…"

He tapped his nose again and strode off.

Lockhart's idea of a morale-booster became clear at breakfast time on February fourteenth. Rose had walked into the Great Hall with the twins and Lee, and for a second thought that they had somehow managed to get lost in the large castle.

The walls were all covered with large, lurid pink flowers. Worse still, heart-shaped confetti was falling from the pale blue ceiling. Rose went to the Gryffindor table and sat next to Lee, feeling as if her whole world had just toppled over. She brushed some confetti off of her pancakes and made a face.

"What happened here?" she practically growled at the twins.

Fred, seemingly too disgusted to speak pointed at the teachers' table, where his eyes had yet to leave. Rose looked up to see Lockhart, wearing lurid pink robes to match the decorations. Rose groaned when he winked in her direction and put her head on the table. Not too long after Harry came into the Great Hall and sat with Ron and Hermione. This seemed to trigger something in Lockhart and he started waving for silence. The teachers on either side of him were looking stony-faced. From where she sat, Rose could see a muscle going in McGonagall's cheek. Snape looked as though someone had fed him a large beaker of Skele-Gro.

"Happy Valentine's Day!" Lockhart shouted. "And may I thank the forty-six people who have so far sent me cards! Yes, I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all- and it doesn't end here!"

Lockhart clapped his hands and through the doors to the entrance hall marched a dozen surly-looking dwarfs. Not just any dwarfs, however. Lockhart had them all wearing golden wings and carrying harps.

"My friendly, card-carrying cupids!" beamed Lockhart. "They will be roving around the school today delivering your valentines! And the fun doesn't stop here! I'm sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion! Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion! And while you're at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I've ever met, the sly old dog!"

Professor Flitwick buried his face in his hands. Snape was looking as though the first person to ask him for a Love Potion would be force-fed poison.

Naturally, the twins were the two who decided to ask him. They both lost Gryffindor twenty points before they could even blink.

All day long, the dwarfs kept barging into their classes to deliver Valentines, to the annoyance of the teachers, and late that afternoon as the Gryffindors were walking upstairs for Charms, one of the dwarfs caught up with Harry.

"Oy, you! 'Arry Potter!" shouted a particularly grim-looking dwarf, elbowing people out of the way to get to Harry.

Rose laughed out loud as her twin tried to escape, likely to avoid embarrassment in front of the horde of first years, which also happened to include Ginny. The dwarf wouldn't let him, though, he cut his way through the crowd by kicking people's shins and reached him before he'd gone two paces.

"I've got a musical message to deliver to 'Arry Potter in person," he said, twining his harp in a threatening sort of way.

" _Not here_ ," Harry hissed, trying to escape.

"Stay _still_!" grunted the dwarf, grabbing hold of Harry's bag and pulling him back.

"Let me go!" Harry snarled, tugging.

With a loud ripping noise, his bag split in two. His books, parchment, and quill spilled onto the floor and his ink bottle smashed over everything.

Rose started helping her scrambling brother to pick up all the stuff before the dwarf started singing, causing something of a holdup in the corridor.

"What's going on here?" came Draco's drawling voice. Harry started stuffing everything feverishly into his ripped bag, desperate to get away. Rose just backed up, almost backing into Draco as she sat back to watch the show.

"What's all this commotion?" said another familiar voice as Percy arrived.

Harry tried to make a run for it, but the dwarf seized him around the knees and brought him crashing to the floor.

"Right," he said, sitting on Harry's ankles. "Here is your singing valentine:

 _His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad,_

 _His hair is as dark as a blackboard._

 _I wish he was mine, he's really divine,_

 _The hero who conquered the Dark Lord_

Part of Rose was insulted, and the other part of her was glad that she hadn't been on the receiving end of something so terrible. Everyone was laughing, and Harry attempted to laugh too. Percy did his best to disperse the crowd, some of whom were crying with mirth.

"Off you go, off you go, the bell rang five minutes ago, off to class, now," he said, shooing some of the younger students away.

" _And_ you Malfoy-"

Rose noticed Draco bend and grab something. Draco leered and showed it to Crabbe and Goyle while Rose and Harry realized it was Riddle's diary.

"Give that back," said Harry quietly.

Rose sighed and started walking away, used to her brother and her friend's bickering. The only reason she stopped was seeing Ginny's horrified face.

Rose turned around and swiftly took the diary from Draco.

"Hey, what-"

"This," Rose said, dangling the book from her fingers, "is not yours. Nor is it Harry's. I will have you know that it's mine, and I'd prefer you didn't look through it. And you, Harry," Rose said, turning her attention to her twin, "are no longer holding onto it for me. I can see that you don't even have a good enough bag for it."

With that Rose walked away, Harry and Ron following her.

It wasn't until they had reached Professor Flitwick's class that Rose noticed something rather odd about Riddle's diary. All Harry's other books had been drenched in scarlet ink. The diary, however, was all clean as it had been before the ink bottle had smashed all over it. She and Harry shared a look, but she returned the book to him.

That night Rose was not saved from her own poem. She had been so happy to not receive anything, but as she pulled out her books she blinked owlishly at the parchment that fell from her bag. She didn't notice the two sets of eyes watching her as she picked it up, she also didn't notice the look the eyes shared as they settled in to watch her.

Rose looked down at the parchment in front of her and found that she didn't recognize the handwriting at all, blushing and glancing around she started reading the poem that the parchment held.

 _Heads will turn to look and stare_

 _At the girl with long red hair._

 _With skin so pale and very fair_

 _Look at the girl with the long red hair._

 _She enters a room, all are aware._

 _And watch the girl with long red hair._

 _Envious eyes that look and desire_

 _The girl with hair like raging fire,_

 _You may look and you may eye_

 _And you may stare as she goes by,_

 _For she has beauty beyond compare_

 _And I love the girl with the long red hair._

Rose couldn't help the giggle that escaped her lips as her face lit up in a blush. Someone said they loved her! She held the parchment to her chest for a moment before blushing even more and shoving the parchment into her bag when she saw the approach of George and Fred.

"Oh, look, it's a pretty little Rose," hummed Fred as he sat on her right side.

"Mmmm, and such a pretty pink, too!" George said as he leaned forward and stroked her left cheek gently.

Rose's face felt as if it were on fire. George's eyes were boring into hers, and she could feel Fred's eyes on her too. She cleared her throat and averted her eyes breaking the spell they were under.

"So, I had a question about our nicknames," she started, hoping bringing up their animagus transformations in public would sufficiently distract them.

"Yeah, I guess we did too," George hummed, pulling her Charms book from the table and flipping through the pages as he finally sat on Rose's left side.

"Well, I just-" Rose started.

"-wanted to know what your name is, yeah, we know," they both said.

They looked at each other before leaning close to her, their breath tickling her neck and face.

"We thought-" Fred started.

"-that maybe-" George continued.

"You'd be called Spots," they both said together, leaning away again and crossing their arms.

"Spots?"

"Yeah, or Inkspot. Maybe we should all have inconspicuous names like that, because once you think about it, having names like Wormtail or Padfoot make it seem sort of obvious that they were what they were, you know what we mean?" Fred muttered.

Rose stared at them for a moment before her face split into a grin, "But then why bother being animagi at all? I mean, we only started this because-"

"You wanted to," the twins said. "That makes anything worth it."

Rose's face turned a pretty pink again and she coughed uncertainty, "Yes, well, we're just going to come up with inconspicuous nicknames?"

"Yours will be at least," George said with a shrug. "We can handle getting in trouble for doing something like this. You, on the other hand, can't. You're a bloody hero, Rose, and if you got caught you'd be looked down upon."

Rose groaned and snatched her charms book from him, sudden irritation filling her, "Yes, yes, we all know that Rose is a bloody hero. We all know that Rose and Harry destroyed Lord Voldemort, you don't need to remind _me_."

They held their hands up in surrender, "We're sorry," they chorused.

She rolled her eyes and huffed, before continuing on like nothing happened, "Perhaps our nicknames be strictly _for_ the map? And maybe those could be our passwords? Make it voice and code activated, where you have to add other people's voices into it?"

Fred and George stared at her, looking as if she was an angel descended from heaven.

"What?" she asked self-consciously.

They shook their heads and smiled at her, "Brilliant! Bloody brilliant!"

"Well… Maybe you two come up with one for me? I'll come up with one's for you guys."

The twins looked at each other before shrugging and saying, "Gentle Heart."

Rose raised her eyebrow but didn't argue.

"That was quick. But to be honest I've been thinking for a lot longer than today," she pointed at Fred, "Rough Coat," she pointed at George, "Soft Paw."

The twins raised their eyebrows and glanced at each other before shrugging and nodding, "Works."

Slowly time passed, and Rose noticed her brother and his friends sending what they thought were inconspicuous glances in Hagrid's direction. She shrugged it off, though, as she was growing hopeful. Each day passed without a whisper from the disembodied voice, and it was now nearly four months since Justin and Nearly Headless Nick had been petrified. Nearly everyone seemed to think that the attacker, whoever it was, had retired for good. Peeves had finally gotten bored of his "Oh, Potter, you rotter" song, Ernie Macmillan asked Harry quite politely to pass a bucket of leaping toadstools in Herbology one day, and in March several of the Mandrakes threw a loud and raucous party in greenhouse three.

"The moment they start trying to move into each other's pots, we'll know they're fully mature," she told everyone. "Then we'll be able to revive those poor people in the hospital wing."

The second years were given something new to think about during their Easter holidays. The time had come to choose their subjects for the third year, a matter that Hermione and Rose took very seriously.

"It could affect our whole future," Hermione had told Harry and Ron as the four of them pored over lists of new subjects, marking them with checks.

"I just want to give up Potions," said Harry.

"Yes, and then give up your dreams of being an Auror," Rose said with a glare.

"We can't give up our old subjects, or I'd've ditched DADA," said Ron gloomily.

"But that's very important!" said Hermione and Rose.

"Not the way Lockhart teaches it," said Ron. "I haven't learned anything from him except not to set pixies loose."

Neville had been sent letters from all the witches and wizards in his family, all giving him different advice on what to choose. Confused and worried, he sat reading the subject lists with his tongue sticking out, asking people whether they thought Arithmancy sounded more difficult than the study of Ancient Runes. Dean Thomas, who had grown up with Muggled ended up closing his eyes and jabbing his wand at the list, then picking the subjects it landed on. Hermione took nobody's advice but signed up for everything.

Rose, being smart, sent a letter to Remus. She knew he would be a brilliant teacher if he didn't have his condition, and he knew her very well, so it was quite logical that he would know the best course of action for her. She told him what the other students had done, and that she didn't know what she would do.

Finally, she got her letter back, and quickly read it over,

" _Dear Cubette,_ " Rose read to the Weasley twins, who were trying to assist her in choosing her classes, " _I see no reason for you to worry about what classes you take. You'll excel at anything you put your mind to-_ Oh, that's rubbish!" she glanced at the twins amused faces before shaking her head and reading on. " _But my personal advice is that you should take Care of Magical Creatures as you already have an affinity for the subject. Might I also suggest that you avoid Divination at all costs, it's impossible to be taught the sight, so you cannot learn from the teacher about the future. Arithmancy is a good class for you if you think that you like muggle math, but honestly, I don't believe that should be one of your choices. Ancient Runes, on the other hand, should be to your liking. It's a good class, fairly difficult, but as I know the twins are learning it too I'm sure you could all create your own runes together-_ that's brilliant! We should definitely do that! _\- then there is Muggle Studies. While I believe you would excel at the class I also believe it would bore you. I recommend not taking it,_ " Rose read the rest of the letter silently and hummed thoughtfully.

"Well, what are you thinking?" The twins asked.

"Well, I'm thinking that really was good advice. However, I'm going to choose Arithmancy too. Personally, I'd like to do them all, besides Divination. It's all so fascinating!"

Fred shrugged and ran his fingers through his hair, "Yeah, it is, isn't it? Although I think I'd much rather study you."

Rose's face turned as red as her hair and she sputtered for a moment, unable to look away from Fred's piercing blue gaze. Thankfully George was there to break it up.

"Oi, don't leave me out of this!" he said with a pout as Rose jumped and immediately looked at him.

"I'm so sorry! I don't know what happened!"

"It's obvious, you think I'm handsome," Fred said with a smirk. "Don't worry, though, no one can overshadow your beauty."

Rose hid her crimson face, knowing the blush was traveling down her neck too, "Stop!" she whined.

Fred shrugged his shoulders as George got up and wrapped an arm around Rose's back, pulling her face first into his chest.

"Don't worry," he said in a whisper, "I won't let the big bad Fred get you."

"Oi!"

Rose laughed and shook her head, marking down her classes for next year, ignoring the fluttering in her stomach.


	12. Chapter 12

Gryffindor's next Quidditch match would be against Hufflepuff. Wood was insisting on team practices every night after dinner, so Rose rarely saw Fred and George, who had barely enough time to do their homework each day. Their moods, however, were slowly rising, as the practices were slowly getting drier. They were excited and knew that Saturday would be a good day.

After the last practice before the game, Rose watched as Harry went up to his room. She knew something was going on when he came back down not much later and started whispering frantically to Hermione and Ron. She sighed but tried to pay attention to the twins.

"Now, Rose, we know that you're really not the biggest Quidditch fan," Fred started.

"And we also know that you are _our_ biggest fan," commented George.

"So, we were wondering,"

"If you were going to go to Quidditch tomorrow!" they said together.

Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head as she kept working on some homework that wasn't due until Thursday, "Yeah, I'll be going. Like always. Really, you're all obsessed."

The twins hugged her, one on each side, and kissed her cheeks, making her face flame bright red.

"Stop it, guys!" she said as she pushed them off of her, her stomach annoyingly fluttering again.

"Awwww, but Rose," they said, drawing her name out. "We just wanted to thank you!"

"Then thank everyone who goes the same way," she huffed, trying to refocus on her work.

The twins shared a look and made an equally disgusted face at the thought of kissing everyone's cheeks, "Let's not and say we did," George muttered.

"Agreed," Fred said.

Rose just shook her head and worked, occasionally telling them different spells she had been finding in the library that may help them with their map.

They woke the next day to brilliant sunshine and a light refreshing breeze.

"Perfect Quidditch conditions!" said Wood enthusiastically at the Gryffindor table, loading the team's plates with scrambled eggs with Rose's assistance. "Harry, buck up there, you need a decent breakfast."

Rose made sure Harry, George, and Fred ate, letting Lee Jordan just nibble on some toast, knowing that he wasn't going to want to eat as he had to do commentary today.

As the Golden Trio left the Great Hall to collect Harry's Quidditch things, Rose heard the disembodied voice again-

" _Kill this time… let me rip… tear…"_

She almost shouted aloud and stood suddenly, drawing the attention of Fred, George, and Draco.

She noticed their worried faces but she just ran out of the hall, not knowing that she had just caused a confrontation between her three worried friends, who had each noticed each other looking.

Rose then realized something. The voice wasn't talking anymore, there was silence. She found Ron, and followed him to the Quidditch match, not realizing that something much bigger would be going on in the castle.

"Where's Hermione?" Rose asked Ron finally.

"Went to the library. Recon's she knows something 'bout this voice," Ron dropped his voice low when talking about the voice.

Rose frowned but nodded, settling into her seat. The teams walked onto the field to tumultuous applause. Oliver Wood took off for a warm-up flight around the goal posts; Madam Hooch released the balls. The Hufflepuffs, who played in canary yellow, were standing in a huddle, having a last-minute discussion of tactics. Suddenly Professor McGonagall came half marching, half running across the pitch, carrying an enormous purple megaphone.

Rose's heart dropped like a stone, "No," she gasped as she grabbed onto Ron's arm.

"This match has been canceled," Professor McGonagall called through the megaphone, addressing the packed stadium. There were boos and shouts. Oliver wood, looking devastated, landed and ran towards Professor McGonagall without getting off his broom. He was obviously trying to change her mind. Professor McGonagall ignored him and continued to shout through her megaphone:

"All students are to make their way back to the House common rooms, where their Heads of Houses will give them further information. As quickly as you can, please!"

Then she lowered the megaphone and beckoned Harry over to her. Rose and Ron detached themselves from the complaining crowd and ran over to Professor McGonagall and Harry. Surprisingly, Professor McGonagall didn't object.

"Yes, perhaps you'd better come, too, Weasley, Miss Potter…"

Some of the students swarming around them were grumbling about the match being canceled; others looked worried. Harry, Ron, and Rose followed Professor McGonagall back into the school and up the marble staircase. But they weren't taken to anybody's office this time.

"This will be a bit of a shock," said Professor McGonagall in a surprisingly gentle voice as they approached the infirmary. "There has been another attack… another _double_ attack."

Rose's insides did a horrible somersault. Professor McGonagall pushed the door open and they all entered.

Madam Pomfrey was bending over a fifth-year girl with long, curly hair. Rose recognized her as someone who Percy often talked to. And on the bed next to her was-

" _Hermione!_ " Ron groaned.

Hermione lay utterly still, her eyes open and glassy. Rose's eyes filled with tears and she clutched her chest, feeling as if her heart had been torn open.

"They were found near the library," said Professor McGonagall. "I don't suppose either of you can explain this? It was on the floor next to them…"

She was holding up a small, circular mirror.

Harry, Ron, and Rose shook their heads, all staring at Hermione.

"I will escort you back to Gryffindor Tower," said Professor McGonagall heavily. "I need to address the students in any case."

They walked to the Gryffindor common room, Rose clutching to both of the boys hands as if they were a lifeline.

"All students will return to their House common rooms by six o'clock in the evening. No student is to leave the dormitories after that time. You will be escorted to each lesson by a teacher. No student is to use the bathroom unaccompanied by a teacher. All further Quidditch training and matches are to be postponed. There will be no more evening activities."

The Gryffindors packed inside the common room listened to Professor McGonagall in silence. She rolled up the parchment from which she had been reading and said in a somewhat choked voice, "I need hardly add that I have rarely been so distressed. It is likely that the school will be closed unless the culprit behind these attacks is caught. I would urge anyone who thinks they might know anything about them to come forward."

She climbed somewhat awkwardly out of the portrait hole, and the Gryffindors began talking immediately.

"That's two Gryffindors down, not counting a Gryffindor ghost, one Ravenclaw, and one Hufflepuff," said Lee, counting on his fingers. "Haven't _any_ of the teachers noticed that the Slytherins are all safe? Isn't it _obvious_ all this stuff's coming from Slytherin? The _Heir_ of Slytherin, the _monster_ of Slytherin- why don't they just chuck all the Slytherins out? He roared, to nods and scattered applause.

Rose stayed strangely silent, just studying Percy Weasley who was sitting in a chair behind Lee, but for once he didn't seem keen to make his views heard. He was looking pale and stunned.

"Percy's in shock," George told Rose quietly. "That Ravenclaw girl - Penelope Clearwater - she's a prefect. I don't think he thought the monster would dare attack a _prefect_."

Rose didn't think that was it, but she was also half-listening. She couldn't get rid of the picture of Hermione, lying on the hospital bed as though carved out of stone. And if the culprit wasn't caught soon, she was looking at losing time at the beloved school.

Rose shakily left the common room and went to her dorm room, for once not feeling safe. The twins were trying to help her, but she felt as if everything was wrong. She climbed into Hermione's bed and clung to her pillow as she cried, feeling as if her friend's fate were her fault. She slept like that for the rest of the night.

Summer was creeping over the grounds around the castle; sky and lake alike turned periwinkle blue (the color of Dumbledore's eyes, Rose had noticed) and flowers large as cabbages burst into bloom in the greenhouses. But with no Hagrid visible from the castle windows, striding the grounds with Fang at his heels, the scene didn't look right to Rose; no better, in fact, than the inside of the castle, where things were so horribly wrong.

With Dumbledore gone, fear had spread as never before, so that the sun warming the castle walls outside seemed to stop at the mullioned windows. There was barely a face to be seen in the school that didn't look worried and tense, and any laughter that rang through the corridors sounded shrill and unnatural and was quickly stifled.

Rose had been slowly separating herself from the twins, who, although stressed, didn't handle it the same way as everyone else. They were an even stronger force for happiness, for laughter, and Rose didn't know how to handle it. She didn't turn to Harry, she didn't turn to Ron, and she wasn't allowed in the Hospital Wing. So she turned to the one person who this seemed to not affect, the one person who was drawing so much ire.

Draco Malfoy pretended to be thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere of terror and suspicion. Draco had taken to strutting around the school as though he had just been appointed Head Boy. One day, when they were walking to Potions, Rose stopped him and sent Crabbe and Goyle forward.

"Look, you don't need to make everyone hate you. You're going to create a united front _against_ you, and that won't help you at all. You're going to make your life at school _miserable_ ," she hissed into his ear.

Draco shook his head and shrugged his shoulders, "Is it really a bad thing? With someone to hate they won't panic as much, now will they? Just don't be seen with me for awhile Rose, it'll hurt your reputation."

And he walked away from her.

Then, he did the unthinkable in Potions.

"I always thought Father might be the one who got rid of Dumbledore," he said, not troubling to keep his voice down. "I told you he thinks Dumbledore's the worst headmaster the school's ever had. Maybe we'll get a decent headmaster now. Someone who won't _want_ the Chamber of Secrets closed. McGonagall won't last long, she's only filling in…"

Rose wanted to cry. Knowing this was an act didn't make it any better, one of her friends had been petrified and the cruel words spilling so easily out of Draco's mouth made her want to punch him. She wanted to say something, but she stayed silent as Snape swept past.

"Sir," said Malfoy loudly. "Sir, why don't _you_ apply for the headmaster's job?"

"Now, now, Malfoy," said Snape, though he couldn't suppress a thin-lipped smile. "Professor Dumbledore has only been suspended by the governors. I daresay he'll be back with us soon enough."

"Yeah, right," said Malfoy smirking. "I expect you'd have Father's vote, sir, if you wanted to apply for the job- _I'll_ tell Father you're the best teacher here, sir-"

Snape smirked as he swept off around the dungeon, fortunately not spotting Seamus Finnigan, who was pretending to vomit into his cauldron.

"I'm quite surprised the Mudbloods haven't all packed their bags by now," Theodore Nott said. "Bet you five Galleons the next one dies. Pity it wasn't Granger-"

The bell rang at that moment, which was lucky; at Nott's words, Ron had leaped off of his stool, and in a scramble to collect bags and books, his attempts to reach Nott went unnoticed.

"Lemme at him," Ron Growled as Harry and Dean hung onto his arms. "I don't care, I don't need my wand, I'm going to kill him with my bare hands-"

"Hurry up, I've got to take you all to Herbology," barked Snape over the class's heads, and they marched, with Harry, Ron, and Dean bringing up the rear, Ron still trying to get loose. It was only safe to let him go when Snape had seen them out of the castle and they were making their way across the vegetable patch toward the greenhouses.

The Herbology class was very subdued; there were now two missing from their number, Justin, and Hermione.

Professor Sprout set them all to work pruning the Abyssinian Shrivelfigs. Rose watched as Ernie Macmillan apologized to Harry and shook her head as Ernie and Hannah came to work with Rose, Harry, and Ron.

"That Draco Malfoy character," said Ernie, breaking off dead twigs, "he seems very pleased about all this doesn't be? D'you know, I think _he_ might be Slytherin's heir."

Rose's head spun at the accusation. She couldn't focus on the conversation anymore, simply sitting there pulling dead twigs away from the healthy plant.

 _With someone to hate they won't panic as much, now will they?_

Rose felt tears rise unbidden to her eyes. The idiot was putting a target on her back, and the one person she had felt safe going to was now out of her grasp. She was glad no one noticed, but she also felt so very, very alone.

At the end of the lesson, Professor Sprout escorted the class to their Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. Harry and Ron lagged behind the others so they could talk, and Rose didn't question them.

Lockhart bounded into the room and the class stared at him. Every other teacher in the place was looking grimmer than usual, but Lockhart appeared nothing short of buoyant.

"Come now," he cried, beaming around him. "Why all these long faces?"

People swapped exasperated looks, but nobody answered.

"Don't you people realize," said Lockhart, speaking slowly, as though they were all a bit dim, "the danger has passed! The culprit has been taken away-"

"Says who?" said Dean Thomas loudly.

"My dear young man, the Minister of Magic wouldn't have taken Hagrid if he hadn't been one hundred percent sure that he was guilty," said Lockhart, in the tone of someone explaining that one and one made two.

"Oh, yes he would," said Ron, even more loudly than Dean.

"I flatter myself to know a _touch_ more about Hagrid's arrest than you do, Mr. Weasley," said Lockhart in a self-satisfied tone.

Ron started to say something more but stopped when Harry kicked him hard under the desk and muttered something to him.

But Lockhart's disgusting cheeriness, his hints that he had always thought Hagrid was no good, his confidence that the whole business was now at an end, irritated Rose so much that she wanted to throw _Gadding with Ghouls_ right in Lockhart's stupid face. Instead, she contented herself with taking notes that she thought Hermione would love, not writing the disgusting comments he was making otherwise.

The Gryffindor common room was always very crowded these days, because from six o'clock onward the Gryffindors had nowhere else to go. They had plenty to talk about, though, which resulted in the common room normally not emptying until past midnight.

Rose watched in disinterest as Fred and George challenged Harry and Ron to a few games of Exploding Snap, with Ginny sitting watching them in Hermione's usual chair. She sat in front of Ginny and allowed the younger girl to mess with her hair, not knowing just how much the younger girl needed it. Rose could tell that Harry and Ron were trying to get the games over and done with as they kept losing while there were normally spectacular battles. Nevertheless, it was well past midnight when Fred, George, Ginny, and Rose finally went to bed.

Rose had gotten over her need to climb into Hermione's bed by staying up late until she was past the point of exhaustion. She could barely move Maple out of the way before she flopped onto the bed with only sleep on her mind. She didn't think about trying to transform, she didn't think about trying to work on the map, she didn't think about anything. She fell into an uneasy sleep, and for the first time since Hermione had been petrified, she dreamed.

 _She walked down the hallway towards the infirmary, trying to come up with a reason to be there. She knew that while Madam Pomfrey was a kind hearted woman she would never let her into the room if she thought for even a second that she was faking an illness or wound. Rose looked herself over, and could find nothing physically ailing her._

 _However, she needn't have worried, for as soon as she reached the doors of the infirmary they opened and she slipped through them._

 _Rose looked around in confusion, there wasn't anyone there. It was empty, completely, and the beds seemed to be in perfect shape, pristine as they so rarely were. She started exploring the room for a hint, anything that could tell her what was going on with the eerily still room._

 _All she found was a spider trying to get outside._

 _Rose shook her head, "Well, it's a good thing Ron's not here, then, now isn't it? His screams can get so shrill…"_

 _She opened the window and watched as the spider scuttled down the side of the castle. She felt as if she should follow the spider but pulled away from the window and exited the Hospital Wing._

" _Hello?" she called into the silence, unsure as to why it unnerved her so._

" _Rose? Rose Potter?" a voice asked from behind her._

 _Rose turned to see a teen, seemingly around Percy's age, who had black hair with a midnight blue hue to it in the moonlight. His eyes were dark, almost like Snape's, but they held no animosity of any kind, only curiosity. His pale skin was practically glowing in the moonlight._

" _Who's asking?" she retorted, unusually on edge with the appearance of this boy._

" _Tom, Tom Riddle," the boy retorted, giving a disarmingly charming smile._

 _Rose frowned, and Fred and George flashed into her mind's eye, "Well, I think you must have the wrong girl. Rose Potter isn't me, at least I was never told it was me."_

 _Rose watched as the boys eyes flashed at her lie, "You lie."_

 _Rose frowned, "Well if you know who I am then why ask?"_

 _Tom Riddle gave a shark-like smile and turned around, walking away, giving a wave of the wrist as a sign of her dismissal, "Goodbye, Rose Potter."_

Rose woke with a start and looked out of the window of the girls dormitory, not knowing why she felt so uneasy. She shook her head and got ready for the day, and ate breakfast in silence between the Weasley twins.

Something happened in her first lesson, Transfiguration, that drove her uneasiness out of her mind immediately. Ten minutes into the class, Professor McGonagall told them that their exams would start on the first of June, one week from today.

" _Exams?"_ howled Seamus Finnigan. "We're still getting _exams_?"

There was a loud band behind Rose as Neville Longbottom's wand slipped, vanishing one of the legs on his desk. Professor McGonagall restored it with a wave of her own wand, and turned, frowning, to Seamus.  
"The whole point of keeping the school open at this time is for you to receive your education," she said sternly. "The exams will, therefore, take place as usual, and I trust you are all studying hard."

Studying hard! Of course, she was! In order to help the class as Hermione used to, Rose had been studying anything and everything, ranging from Occlumency to the properties of a bloodroot. There was a great deal of mutinous muttering around the room, which made Professor McGonagall scowl even more darkly.

"Professor Dumbledore's instructions were to keep the school running as normally as possible," she said. "And that, I need hardly point out, means finding out how much you have learned this year."

Rose looked down at the pair of white rabbits she was supposed to be turning into slippers. In all honesty, she wasn't sure what she had learned this year. Perhaps not throwing a firework into a cauldron would become part of the exam in Snape's class, or perhaps the Chamber of Secret's history could be on Binn's exam. What had she learned? She waved her wand, transforming the rabbits into slippers perfectly.

She glanced over at Ron, whose wand was starting to whistle loudly, "Can you imagine me taking exams with this?" he asked Harry.

Three days before their first exam, Professor McGonagall made another announcement at breakfast.

"I have good news," she said, and the Great Hall, instead of falling silent, erupted.

"Dumbledore's coming back!" several people yelled joyfully.

"You've caught the Heir of Slytherin!" squealed a girl at Ravenclaw table.

"Quidditch matches are back on!" roared Wood excitedly.

When the hubbub had subsided, Professor McGonagall said, "Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been Petrified. I need hardly remind you all that one of them may well be able to tell us who, or what attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the culprit."

There was an explosion of cheering. Rose noticed that Draco hadn't joined in, but she was feeling more alive than she had in days.

Rose watched as Ginny sat near Ron and Harry with a scared look on her face. She was rocking backward and forward slightly in her chair, exactly like an abused house-elf would.

Ginny seemed to be about to share something when Percy appeared, looking tired and wan. He said something and Ginny jumped up as though her chair had just been electrified. She gave Percy a fleeting, frightened look before scampering away. Rose frowned and recognized the strange behavior of her friend. She would have to ask her about it later that night.

Rose, it seemed, made a huge mistake that day. She was walking with Harry and Ron midmorning as they were being led to History of Magic by Lockhart.

Lockhart, who had often assured them that all danger had passed, only to be proved wrong right away, was now wholeheartedly convinced that it was hardly worth the trouble to see them safely down the corridors. His hair wasn't as sleek as usual; it seemed he had been up most of the night, patrolling the fourth floor.

"Mark my words," he said, ushering them around a corner. "The first words out of those poor Petrified people's mouths will be ' _It was Hagrid.'_ Frankly, I'm astounded Professor McGonagall thinks all these security measures are necessary."

"I agree, sir," said Harry, making Ron drop his books in surprise, Rose almost following suit.

"What are you doing?" she hissed at Harry but was overshadowed by Lockhart.

"Thank you, Harry," Lockhart said graciously while they waited for a long line of Hufflepuffs to pass. "I mean, we teachers have quite enough to be getting on with, without walking students to classes and standing guard all night…"

"That's right," said Ron, much to Rose's amazement. "Why don't you leave us here, sir, we've only got one more corridor to go-"

"You know, Weasley, I think I will," said Lockhart. "I really should go and prepare my next class-"

And he hurried off.

"Prepare his class," Ron sneered after him. "Gone to curl his hair, more like."

At first, Rose was going to follow the other Gryffindors, but something told her to stick with her brother. They let the rest of the Gryffindors draw ahead of them, then darted down a side passage and hurried off toward Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. But just as the two boys were congratulating each other about something-

"Mr. and Miss Potter! Weasley! What are you doing?"

"We were- we were-" Ron stammered. "We were going to- to go and see-"

"Hermione," said Rose and Harry at the same moment. Ron and Professor McGonagall both looked at them.

"We haven't seen her for ages, Professor," Harry went on hurriedly, treading on Ron's foot, "and we thought we'd sneak into the hospital wing, you know, and tell her the Mandrakes are nearly ready and, er, not to worry-"

Professor McGonagall was still staring at them, and for a moment, Rose thought she was going to explode, but when she spoke, it was in a strangely croaky voice.

"Of course," she said, and Rose noted a tear glistening in her beady eye. "Of course, I realize this has all been hardest on the friends of those who have been… I quite understand. Yes, Potter, of course, you may visit Miss Granger. I will inform Professor Binns where you've gone. Tell Madam Pomfrey I have given you permission."

They walked away, hardly daring to believe that they avoided detention. As they turned the corner, they distinctly heard Professor McGonagall blow her nose.

"That," said Ron fervently, "was the best story you've ever come up with."

"It shouldn't have _been_ a story!" Rose whispered. "Where did you intend to go anyways?!"

As the boys explained their plot to talk to Moaning Myrtle all of the pieces started falling into place in her mind. As they walked to the hospital wing, they filled her in on Aragog, on the story the Acromantula had told, and on their hypothesis because of it.

Rose shook her head, if only Hermione were there to confirm her theory!

Once they told Madam Pomfrey they had permission from McGonagall, she let them in, but reluctantly.

"There's just no _point_ talking to a Petrified person," she said, and they had to admit she had a point when they'd taken their seats next to Hermione. It was plain that Hermione didn't have the faintest inkling that she had visitors and that they might just as well tell her bedside cabinet not to worry for all the good it would do.

"Wonder if she did see the attacker, though?" said Ron, looking sadly at Hermione's rigid face. "Because if he sneaked up on them all, no one'll ever know…"

But Rose's and Harry's attention was not on Hermione's face. They were more interested in her right hand. It lay clenched on top of her blankets, and bending closer, they saw that a piece of paper was scrunched inside her fist.

Making sure that Madam Pomfrey was nowhere near, Harry pointed this out to Ron. Rose moved her chair slightly so that she blocked Harry from Madam Pomfrey's view.

It appeared to be no easy task for Harry, but he kept tugging and twisting, and at last, after several tense minutes, the paper came free.

It was a page torn from a very old library book. Harry smoothed it out eagerly and Ron and Rose leaned close to read it, too.

 _Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it._

And beneath this, a single word had been written, in a hand, Rose recognized, as Hermione's. _Pipes_.

Rose sighed, and muttered, "I didn't want to be right."

Harry and Ron ignored her.

"Ron," Harry breathed. "This is it. This is the answer. The monster in the Chamber's a _basilisk_ \- a giant serpent! _That's_ why Rose and I've been hearing the voice all over the place, and nobody else has heard it. It's because we understand Parseltongue…"

Rose picked up the explanation for the two boys in front of her, "The basilisk kills people by looking at them. But no one's died- because no one looked it straight in the eye. Colin saw it through his camera. Justin saw the basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick. Nick got the full blast of it, but he couldn't die _again…_ and Hermione and Penelope were found with a mirror next to them. Hermione knew the monster was a basilisk, so she must've warned Penelope they looked around a corner with a mirror and that's how _they_ got Petrified."

Ron and Harry's jaws had dropped.

"And Mrs. Norris?" Ron whispered eagerly.

Rose shrugged her shoulders, "The water. Mrs. Norris only saw the reflection."

Harry started scanning the page in his hand eagerly. The more he looked at it the more it appeared to make sense to him.

"... _The crowing of the rooster… is fatal to it!"_ he read aloud. "Hagrid's roosters were killed! The Heir of Slytherin didn't want one anywhere near the castle once the Chamber was opened! _Spiders flee before it!_ It all fits!"

"But how's the basilisk been getting around the place?" said Ron. "A giant snake… Someone would've seen…"

Harry was the one who explained this part. He pointed at the word Hermione had scribbled at the foot of the page.

"Pipes," he said. "Pipes… Ron, it's been using the plumbing. I've been hearing that voice inside the walls…"

Ron suddenly grabbed Harry's arm.

"The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!" he said hoarsely. "What if it's a bathroom? What if it's in-"

"- _Moaning Myrtle's bathroom,_ " said Harry.

They sat there, excitement coursing through them, hardly able to believe it.

"This means," said Harry, "Rose and I aren't the only Parstlemouth's in the school. The Heir of Slytherin's one, too. That's how he's been controlling the basilisk."

"What're we going to do?" said Ron, whose eyes were flashing. "Should we go straight to McGonagall?"

"Let's go to the staff room," said Harry, jumping up. "She'll be there in ten minutes. It's nearly break. Rose, go back to the common room or stay here for now. I don't want you involved in this."

"Like hell I won't be involved in this! Hermione was my friend too!" Rose said as loudly as she dared.

Harry shook his head, "Look, either you stay here, or you go to the common room. Whatever you do, you're not coming with us."

Rose brewed in anger as her brother and his best friend walked out, she turned and stared at Hermione, "Is this how they treat you? Are we not good enough for their little adventures?"

She started heading back to the House commons. The bell to signal break never came.

Instead, echoing through the corridors came Professor McGonagall's voice, magically magnified.

" _All students are to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room. Immediately, please."_

Rose assumed that this was because Harry and Ron had managed to contact her, and she didn't know just how wrong she was.


	13. Chapter 13

Harry and Ron returned milliseconds before Professor McGonagall did. Rose was going to ask them if everything was okay, and then they found out just now _not_ okay the situation was.

It was possibly the worst day of Rose's life. She was sitting sandwiched between Fred and George while sitting with Harry and Ron. They were in Rose, George, and Fred's usual corner of the common room, but they were unable to say anything to each other. Percy wasn't there. He had gone to send an owl to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, then shut himself up in his dormitory.

No afternoon ever lasted as long as that one, nor had Gryffindor Tower ever been so crowded, yet so quiet. Near sunset, Fred and George went up to bed, unable to sit there any longer.

"She knew something, Harry," said Ron, speaking for the first time since they had returned. "That's why she was taken. It wasn't some stupid thing about Percy at all. She found out something about the Chamber of Secrets. That must be why she was-" Ron rubbed his eyes frantically. "I mean, she was a pure-blood. There can't be any other reason."

"Harry," said Ron. "D'you think there's any chance at all she's not- you know-"

Rose stayed silent, as did Harry. She hoped beyond hope that her friend was alive, but she wasn't sure how that could be true.

"D'you know what?" said Ron. "I think we should go and see Lockhart. Tell him what we know. He's going to try and get into the Chamber. We can tell him where we think it is, and tell him it's a basilisk in there."

Rose stopped them, "No, guys, that won't help. Listen to me, if you're going to go to anyone, you're going to go to McGonagall. She'll actually do something. Lockhart is probably packing his belongings right now, and going to him will just waste valuable time."

They nodded. The Gryffindors around them were so miserable, and felt so sorry for the Weasleys that nobody tried to stop them as they got up, crossed the room, and left through the portrait hole. Now all she could do was try to comfort her friends.

She walked up the stairs to the boy's dormitories. She gently knocked on the door labeled _Fourth Year Boys_. Lee Jordan was the one who answered the knock.

"Oh, it's you… I guess…" Lee looked over his shoulder and shook his head. "Yeah, no, come on in. You'll probably help them."

Rose walked in slowly. The room was in complete disarray, and she frowned sadly. They had obviously gone on a destructive rampage in their distress. She looked over at George's bed first and found no one there, so she walked over to Fred's bed. Sure enough, there were two heads barely poking out from under the sheets. She shook her head and sighed sadly, gently pulling the sheets back.

They were still in their school uniforms, their shoes not even off, and they were clinging to each other as if their lives depended on it. She could tell they weren't asleep, but they also didn't want to appear awake, either.

Rose frowned and ran her fingers through George's hair, and rubbed soothing circles into Fred's arm, "Well, am I allowed in, guys? I'm here if you want me to be."

Quick as lightning she had arms wrapped around her and with a dull _fwoomp_ she was brought onto the bed, caught between the twins. She tried, for a moment, to figure out who to face, but it appeared the twins knew what to do in this instance. She was laid on her back as their arms entangled themselves around her, and her arms went instinctively around their necks. She almost smiled until she felt their shaking forms, and she went back to comforting them.

"Hush now, it's okay. I'm here, and you'll never have to be alone with this pain again. I'll ask Remus and Sirius if I can just stay at the Burrow all summer or something like that. You're both the brightest lights of happiness in this world and I don't want you to be dulled down by this pain," her words were whispered as she ran her fingers through their hair.

She felt more than heard when they started crying. They laid like that for awhile before Rose started feeling strange. She felt rushes of emotion enter her at random intervals. She gasped and sat up, holding her chest as fear raged through her.

"Rose?" two identically worried voices sounded next to her.

She shook her head, "It's Harry, he… Something is wrong."

Fred and George shared a look and pulled her back into their arms, holding her close. She closed her eyes and suddenly she felt as if she were getting weaker, as if part of her life was leaving her. Her previously tense body started to go limp, and then grew stronger and stronger. Rose quickly got out of the bed.

"Look, guys, I think Harry just almost died, I need to go make sure he didn't go down to the chamber alone."

Fred and George stared at her.

"You mean to tell us-" Fred started in a deadly voice.

"- you know where the Chamber is?" George continued, his eyes flashing dangerously.

All color drained out of Rose's face besides two blotches of pink high on her cheekbones, "Yes, we figured it out today, he was supposed to go tell McGonagall, that's what they said they were going to do."

"They?" the twins growled dangerously.

Rose took a step back, for once frightened of the two boys in front of her, "Well, yes, they never do anything alone, now do they?"

The twins shared a look and stood up, advancing towards her.

"So this whole time-" George started.

"We could have been down there-" Fred continued.

"Saving Ginny's life-"

"But you gave us no _choice_?!"

Rose was almost pressed against a wall, and she had no idea how to answer. She had never seen the twins like this, she had never been able to figure out how to handle anger directed at her. She felt as if the walls were closing in on her when Lee Jordan came to her rescue.

"Oi, what do you two think you were going to do anyways?" he asked as he pushed his way between them and Rose, making the twins back away in the process. "You don't even know what monster is down there, you don't know what is going on."

The twins turned accusing glares onto Rose, "She could probably tell us."

Lee turned around, motioning for Rose to defend herself, but Rose could not lie to the boys in front of her, "It's a basilisk…" she whispered. "It's been getting around through the pipes… No one's died yet because no one's looked it in the eyes."

"But our sister could be dead because of you!" Fred roared.

Rose flinched back, "Harry and Ron were supposed to have already told McGonagall! I can't control what they do and do not do!"

Fred made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat, but George's eyes seemed to clear a bit, "She has a point, Fred."

"She'll have a point if my sister is still alive."

Rose looked at Fred and George sadly, "Don't fight on my account. I… I would be upset too… I'll… Go."

And Rose swept out of their room and down the stairs.

Rose didn't leave the Common Room, in fact, Rose hardly did anything until Harry showed up.

"Harry! You're alive! I felt- you were-" Rose stuttered as Harry walked in.

"I am. Ginny's fine, Ron's fine too. Lockhart obliviated himself, and I need to talk to you," Harry said, unusually grim.

Rose nodded dumbly as she sat back down and her brother sat next to her. They were silent for a time, the fire barely even alight with embers.

"Rose… Were you almost put into Slytherin?" Harry asked.

Rose went wide eyed, but she simply nodded, "Well, so was I," Harry muttered. "Listen, I talked to Dumbledore, and he explained some stuff. We can speak Parseltongue because Voldemort was the last remaining ancestor of Salazar Slytherin, and he could speak Parseltongue. When Voldemort died, or disappeared, or whatever it was, he transferred some of his powers to us."

Rose looked at him wide eyed, "So… There's… There's a bit of Voldemort in us?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah, yeah there is."

There was silence again, then-

"He asked about you," Harry muttered.

"Hmm? Who? Dumbledore?" Rose questioned.

"No, Tom Riddle."

The name sent chills down her spine, and sent her spiraling into the dream she had had, "You mean he was _real_? I mean, I know the Diary was real but… I thought my mind had made him up!"

"You mean you dreamt about him?" Harry said, his eyes that were previously unfocused narrowing in on were with laser beam intensity.

"Yeah, he… Well I don't know what he was doing. But he was the only person and… And it was strange. He didn't like it when I tried to tell him I wasn't Rose Potter."

Harry frowned, his eyebrows drawn together, "Well, that's something I wish I knew…"

"What did he say about me?"

"He asked why you weren't there. He said he had wanted us both to be there, but that I would have to do."

Rose shivered and paled. Harry noticed and stood, pulling her up with him, "Come on Rose, go put on pajamas. We're going to have a brilliant feast."

Rose had been to several Hogwarts feasts, but never one quite like this. Everybody was in their pajamas, and the celebrations lasted all night. Rose didn't know whether the best bit was Hermione running towards them, screaming "You solved it! You solved it!" of Justin hurrying over from the Hufflepuff table to wring Harry's hand and apologize endlessly for suspecting him, or the twins crushing her with a hug and apologizing profusely. Perhaps it was Hagrid turning up at half past three, cuffing Harry and Ron so hard on the shoulders that they were knocked into their plates of trifle, or even when Harry and Ron earned 400 points for Gryffindor which secured the House Cup for the second year running, or Professor McGonagall standing up to tell them all that the exams had been canceled as a school treat, or Dumbledore announcing that, unfortunately, Professor Lockhart would be unable to return next year, owing to the fact that he needed to go away to get his memory back. Quite a few of the teachers joined in the cheering that greeted this news.

"Shame," said Ron, helping himself to a jam doughnut. "He was starting to grow on me."

The rest of the final term passed in a haze of blazing sunshine. Hogwarts was back to normal with only a few, small differences- Defense Against the Dark Arts classes were canceled and Lucius Malfoy had been sacked as a school governor. Draco was no longer strutting around the school as though he owned the place.

Too soon, it was time for the journey home on the Hogwarts Express. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Rose, and Ginny got a compartment to themselves. They made the most of the last few hours in which they were allowed to do magic before the holidays. They played Exploding Snap, set off the very last of Fred and George's Filibuster fireworks, and practiced disarming each other by magic. Harry was almost as good as Rose was now.

They were almost at King's Cross when Harry started talking.

"Ginny- what did you see Percy doing, that he didn't want you to tell anyone?"

"Oh, that," said Ginny, giggling. "Well- Percy's got a _girlfriend._ "

Fred dropped a stack of books on George's head, causing Rose to almost cackle she was laughing so hard.

" _What?"_

"It's that Ravenclaw prefect, Penelope Clearwater," said Ginny. "That's who he was writing to all last summer. He's been meeting her all over the school in secret. I walked in on them _kissing_ in an empty classroom one day. He was so upset when she was -you know- attacked. You won't tease him, will you?" she added anxiously.

"Wouldn't dream of it," said Fred, who was looking like his birthday had come early.

"Definitely not," said George, sniggering.

"Why would we ever do that?" Rose questioned, her eyes full of mischief.

The Hogwarts Express slowed and finally stopped, and together they walked back through the gateway to the Muggle world.

Harry was squeezed into Mrs. Weasley's arms, and Rose narrowly escaped the same treatment by abandoning her things and launching herself into Sirius's awaiting arms.

"Oh, how I've missed these hugs!" he practically yelled as he swung her through the air making her squeal and cling tighter to her.

"Sirius! Put me down!" Rose yelled through her laughter.

As she was sat down she was pulled into the air again, this time by Remus, "Oh, I see, he's more important than me! After I gave you a chicken purse and everything!"

Rose laughed loudly and happily, her laugh ringing out around her like a beacon to all of those that knew her.

As she was sat down she smiled at all of the people around her. This is what it meant to be loved, this is what it meant to have a family.

Her eyes locked with Fred's and George's, and her cheeks turned a faint pink color. This summer, no matter what, would be perfect.

No matter what.


	14. Authors Note

**Hello, everyone! SylviaSnape98 here!**

 **I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for staying with the story so far! I've been trying my hardest to get it out in a timely fashion, and as such, Harry and Rose Potter Book Three is already out!**

 **I hope you all enjoy reading this story as much as I enjoy writing it!**


End file.
